A tale of terrific girl power and athleticism.
Twelve-year-old Alex is plainspoken, protective of 7-year-old sister Belle, and passionate about soccer.
She began playing microsoccer at age 5 on the local rec center team where her coach, Jayda, a Black woman, encourages every player, and she has continued to approach the game with determination, learning to bend a corner kick into the net, and topping 1,300 juggles. When Alex’s financially struggling single mother, who is dismissive of Jayda, is approached by Coach Austin, a smarmy assumed White man who instantly impresses her, she agrees to move Alex to the San Francisco Select Superior girls’ team. As a result Alex’s relationship with the game she has loved for years is threatened. Some of the changes will be familiar for readers who have played youth sports. The select team is well funded, and the privileged players don’t seem to have Alex’s challenges (she uses public transportation and must help care for Belle). The level of play is exhilarating even though Coach Austin proves to be disrespectful and dismissive of the girls he’s coaching. Alex also notices that he treats women coaches and refs with contempt. Her strong sense of justice prevails over his bullying in a believable confrontation and resolution. Matheson’s descriptions of game play are convincing and entertaining, and her voice for Alex is appealing, honest, and assured. Characters default to White, and while some racial diversity is introduced, its impact on the dynamics is unfortunately not clearly explored.
A tale of terrific girl power and athleticism. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: May 9, 2023
ISBN: 9780593567234
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
Fast-paced and plot-driven.
In his latest, prolific author Gratz takes on Hitler’s Olympic Games.
When 13-year-old American gymnast Evie Harris arrives in Berlin to compete in the 1936 Olympic Games, she has one goal: stardom. If she can bring home a gold medal like her friend, the famous equestrian-turned-Hollywood-star Mary Brooks, she might be able to lift her family out of their Dust Bowl poverty. But someone slips a strange note under Evie’s door, and soon she’s dodging Heinz Fischer, the Hitler Youth member assigned to host her, and meeting strangers who want to make use of her gymnastic skills—to rob a bank. As the games progress, Evie begins to see the moral issues behind their sparkling facade—the antisemitism and racism inherent in Nazi ideology and the way Hitler is using the competition to support and promote these beliefs. And she also agrees to rob the bank. Gratz goes big on the Mission Impossible–style heist, which takes center stage over the actual competitions, other than Jesse Owens’ famous long jump. A lengthy and detailed author’s note provides valuable historical context, including places where Gratz adapted the facts for storytelling purposes (although there’s no mention of the fact that before 1952, Olympic equestrian sports were limited to male military officers). With an emphasis on the plot, many of the characters feel defined primarily by how they’re suffering under the Nazis, such as the fictional diver Ursula Diop, who was involuntarily sterilized for being biracial.
Fast-paced and plot-driven. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781338736106
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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