Kenzie’s mom plays roller derby. Kenzie and her friend Shelly have been practicing their moves on quads for years, hoping to play someday too. They’re ecstatic to hear of tryouts for a new junior derby league- but they need a team of at least five. With only a week to prepare, they scramble to find three other girls interested in derby at all- most kids they talk to have never even heard of the sport. And nobody they approach knows how to roller skate, either. One girl they bring to the team is a skateboarder, and picks up the skills easily. The others struggle just to stay upright! But just as troubling as their lack of experience, is how Kenzie sees her friendship with Shelly changing as they embrace the dynamics of working with a team. They’re not all prepared for how rough derby can be. Their team doesn’t even have a name yet and their gameplay lacks polish, but nevertheless (really unbelievably to the reader) the coaches are impressed with their efforts to work together. So they make it into the league.
I was surprised at how fast some of the characters picked up roller skating- but I guess to some it could come so naturally. And I thought it very much like a kid, how Kenzie kept imagining the glamor and excitement of being on the team performing in front of fans, forgetting about all the hard work it would take to get there. Plus the friendship troubles that kept getting in her way. Some parts of this story didn’t seem realistic to me, but I bet middle-school readers (I think that’s the age group it’s aimed at) wouldn’t even notice. I really like the illustrations by Sophie Escabasse.
Borrowed from the public library.
