SKY ROPES

What is true strength? Tough girl Breanna is about to find out.

Sixth grader Breanna Woodruff has finally made some friends, 5 years after she and her mother moved to Beecham, 50 miles away from Detroit and the father they have a restraining order against. Making her mark as the gutsiest kid in school, Breanna cannot let the other kids find out how afraid she is of heights. Therefore, she is adamant that she will not be going to the sixth grade team-building camp that features a treetop obstacle course that fills her with terror. Her mother, however, has other ideas, and in due course, Breanna finds herself at camp, trying desperately to keep up her reputation. But the stunning natural beauty of the place, the wisdom of the camp counselors, and the lure of a softball game against mean girl Cami slowly take down Breanna’s protective defenses. Although the first half of the story repeats its main topics too often and the rote delineation of secondary characters’ personality traits substitutes for deep character development, the metaphors are refreshingly original, and the descriptions of the setting are keenly observed. The second half of the story perks up considerably, and the truly powerful denouement will not easily be forgotten. Impressively, the story’s conclusion delivers nuanced, hard-fought realizations on the natures of fear, friendship, and past traumas. Breanna is White; there is ethnic diversity among the secondary characters.

A debut whose slow beginning belies its powerful conclusion.