SKINNER'S BANKS

In the second volume of a Canadian trilogy, 12-year-old skateboarder Cale Finch makes a skate video with the Seven Stair Crew, of which he is newly a member.

When the story opens, Cale has just “ollied the Seven Stairs,” earning his place among the older boys who make up the Seven Stair Crew. He lives with his single mom, has a crush on classmate Angie Phillips and is afraid of Tweeze, a skateboarding bully from the next town over. Then the Seven Stairs Crew decides to put together a video of their best tricks, and a local skateboarding hero volunteers his help...and some information about Cale’s family history. There are a lot of storylines for such a short book, and none of them is explored especially thoroughly. Shooting the video is frustrating, but the frustration seems to resolve itself. The boys sneak out to film late at night, so that no one can kick them out of the best skating spots in town, and take uncomfortable risks with firecrackers, but an accident happens to a character largely unrelated to their late-night activities (and, unsettlingly, footage of a crew member throwing firecrackers at a drunk interloper is positively received when the film premieres).

Exciting skating action and easy-to-relate-to issues but too much going on in too little space.