Orr’s afterword has the final words—on passion, struggle, respect—qualities Kootstra has spun into her story with...
Kootstra manages to breed a saxophone to a hockey stick and produce one sweet boy.
It’s the start of grade six. Enough said. But Jay Roberts kind of likes junior high. Home is Parry Sound, Ontario, a small, largely white burg on the shores of Georgian Bay, where Jay gets to exercise his obsession eight months of the year: hockey. And…the peerless Bobby Orr was born in Parry Sound. (Orr is important to the story, so it’s too bad he is summed up as “easily skating around his opponents to find his way to the net for a goal or, if his team was unable to score, fading back to play his position as a defensemen.” Good thing that Orr’s reputation precedes him.) Two nemeses will test Jay’s patience and confidence this year: bully Mick and the saxophone, an instrument Jay gets saddled with and for which he has little affection. But this story has the buoyancy of a life preserver, and humor’s sprinkled around like salt on an icy sidewalk. “All your father and I expect of you is to do your best, your very best, at whatever you do, and try not to throw up.” With a cool hand, Kootstra also gives hidden depths to band geek Ben, draws the commonalities between a stick and a sax, tells two convincing stories about confidence and the journey being the point, and fashions a sharp visualization to end the tale.
Orr’s afterword has the final words—on passion, struggle, respect—qualities Kootstra has spun into her story with understated dexterity. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-670-06940-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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