Thirteen-year-old Elsie starts out determined not to like her high-school marching band. She’s only joined because she needs...
Can a serious French horn player ever find happiness in marching band?
Thirteen-year-old Elsie starts out determined not to like her high-school marching band. She’s only joined because she needs some ensemble experience before auditioning for the prestigious Shining Birches musical summer camp. One humiliation follows another, many caused by her absolute inability to empathize with those around her, all leaving her frustrated and ashamed. Her problem is understandable: She’s pretty convinced that her future hangs solely on the quality of her musical ability, so she’s never focused on other people, just practice and more practice. But the transcendent joys of marching band—the intense camaraderie of hours and hours of marching in the hot sun, learning how to stay in straight lines, play clearly, follow drill formations and myriad other details that will ring perfectly true for marching-band geeks—gradually change Elsie’s mind. At the same time, she learns, through some trial and mostly error, more effective ways to deal with her controlling parents, manage the stress of adjusting to high school and, most importantly, make friends. At times, Elsie’s introspection is painful, as she overanalyzes the nuances of every relationship, but it is simultaneously realistic.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3564-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
An insightful look at unintentional pressures placed upon children.
Two 13-year-old girls figure out what’s really important to them during a transitional summer.
Best friends Monique Jenkins and Rasheeda Tate are facing unfamiliar situations without each other to lean on over the last summer before freshman year. Monique is attending a competitive three-week summer intensive at Ballet America—where she hopes to land a full-year scholarship. Upon arrival, she’s quickly faced with her differences: She and her friend from home, Mila, are the only Black people there. Unlike Mila and the White girls, Monique isn’t tall and thin, and she doesn’t know the nuances of ballet culture. Monique navigates microaggressions as she tries to fit in, with hopes of her talent’s being recognized. Meanwhile, Rasheeda is facing a lonely summer at home, afraid Mo will forget about her. Thrust into nonstop church activities by her pious aunt, Rasheeda spends her time wallowing, feeling the pressure to be a “good girl,” and being consoled by a flirtatious Lennie, Monique’s brother. Rasheeda starts to give church a chance and deepens her relationship with Lennie, which leads to a deeply upsetting event. Writing from the girls’ alternating third-person viewpoints, Chase lends authenticity to the characters’ distinct voices. She delves into the unique pressures of ballet and church cultures with empathetic understanding while also referencing difficulties faced by the Black working-class communities to which the main characters belong.
An insightful look at unintentional pressures placed upon children. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-296566-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Brisk sports action enhanced by treatment of personal, political, and racial stereotyping issues.
Challenges dog two star players both on and off the court.
Fresh from soccer triumphs in Benchwarmers (2019), sixth grade buds Jeff Michaels and Andi Carillo eagerly sign up for, respectively, Merion Middle School’s boys and girls b-ball teams. Jeff discovers bullying soccer nemesis Ron Arlow is likewise trying out for point guard, and Andi is saddled with Amy Josephson, a coach who admits that she’s never coached before. Frictions develop as the two squads get off to stumbling starts—but the girls have by far the worst of it, as Coach Josephson proves ignorant of hoops strategy and tactics, benches Andi for imagined insubordination, and then caps it all by making racist remarks about black athletes. Feinstein’s game descriptions are tight and exciting for any reader but even moreso for those who know a pick and roll from a zone trap. At the end the drama moves from basketball court to food court as Jeff and Andi go from jock friends to something closer…and even to the courtroom after the offer from Fran Dunphy (an actual, renowned college coach) to take over the girls team draws an injunction from the teachers union. Both young jocks show that when the pressure is on, they’ve got game in life as well as hoops. Most of the cast is white; some players are African American (and one is generically Asian).
Brisk sports action enhanced by treatment of personal, political, and racial stereotyping issues. (Sports fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-374-31205-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
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