This one, not so good. The writing felt a bit stiff and clunky from page one, with repetitive phrases and word choices, too much told and not shown, awkward sounding conversations (especially the one where the main character calls a family meeting to ask for help). Some parts of the plot didn’t feel realistic to me. It seemed like the main character, a girl named Mira from an immigrant family who lives in a poorer neighborhood, has just one too many problems stacked against her. And then everything gets made right a bit too tidily, but maybe that’s just my view on it. She loves tennis and to have more opportunities to play and compete, attends a better school outside her district, lying about her address to get in (I don’t know how that was possible, any place I enrolled my kids you had to show proof of residency with several kinds of documents). She’s a good student but struggles to keep up with responsibilities at home- because her mother works a lot- and they can’t afford extra things so she uses hand-me-down equipment or does without. Part of the story is just about playing tennis- the practices and matches, what she’s good at, where she is on the team, how her attitude affects her game, etc. I’m only vaguely familiar with tennis so certainly learned a lot! especially the terms (‘seed’ is a funny one to me, more so than ‘love‘). Several other girls at school seem to hold something against her, and she’s afraid they’re going to find out her secret and ruin her chance to stay on the team (although I didn’t think their actions quite fell under the definition of bullying, as an adult in the story stated). When she finally admits what’s going on to adults around her- the coach, her mother, a teacher- she’s surprised and gratified that she doesn’t get in trouble, but instead hands reaching out to help. A scholarship takes care of part of the problem, and the understanding from her coach (who also came from a less-privledged background) takes care of the rest. Relieved of a great load of stress and worry, she’s finally able to perform her best at the tennis match and beat an opponent. The end.
Borrowed from the public library.
