by Eric Howling ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2017
A useful addition that will encourage sports fans.
A star athlete struggles to cope with changes in his coach’s behavior that could have ramifications on and off the field.
Colt, star defensive player and captain of his Edmonton, Alberta, high school football team, is a hardworking, clean-hitting football player. He thought that was what he needed to do to win and to please his coach, who also happens to be the white teen’s dad. Lately, though, little seems to satisfy his father, either on or off the field. It doesn’t help that Colt’s Asian-Canadian girlfriend, Andrea Wong, covers the team for the school paper and seems determined to ask questions Coach does not want to answer. When his dad insists that he and the other defensive players engage in a dangerous hit on an opponent, Colt is torn, though his main rival on the team has no such compunction. As the season continues and the pressure to win mounts, Colt is forced to make decisions that could place him in direct opposition to his father. This straightforward sports story, part of a series for reluctant readers, tackles both the long-term effects of concussions and the pressures of high school sports. The characters are not very complex, and Coach’s change of heart seems abrupt considering his earlier behavior. However, the football action is well-told, and members of the team sound authentic.
A useful addition that will encourage sports fans. (Fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4594-0968-2
Page Count: 128
Publisher: James Lorimer
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2017
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by Eric Howling
by Elinor Teele ; illustrated by Ben Whitehouse ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2016
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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by Elinor Teele
by Johnnie Christmas ; illustrated by Johnnie Christmas ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 17, 2022
Problem-solving through perseverance and friendship is the real win in this deeply smart and inspiring story.
Leaving Brooklyn behind, Black math-whiz and puzzle lover Bree starts a new life in Florida, where she’ll be tossed into the deep end in more ways than one. Keeping her head above water may be the trickiest puzzle yet.
While her dad is busy working and training in IT, Bree struggles at first to settle into Enith Brigitha Middle School, largely due to the school’s preoccupation with swimming—from the accomplishments of its namesake, a Black Olympian from Curaçao, to its near victory at the state swimming championships. But Bree can’t swim. To illustrate her anxiety around this fact, the graphic novel’s bright colors give way to gray thought bubbles with thick, darkened outlines expressing Bree’s deepest fears and doubts. This poignant visual crowds some panels just as anxious feelings can crowd the thoughts of otherwise star students like Bree. Ultimately, learning to swim turns out to be easy enough with the help of a kind older neighbor—a Black woman with a competitive swimming past of her own as well as a rich and bittersweet understanding of Black Americans’ relationship with swimming—who explains to Bree how racist obstacles of the past can become collective anxiety in the present. To her surprise, Bree, with her newfound water skills, eventually finds herself on the school’s swim team, navigating competition, her anxiety, and new, meaningful relationships.
Problem-solving through perseverance and friendship is the real win in this deeply smart and inspiring story. (Graphic fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: May 17, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-305677-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
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