Tag: Juvenile Fic

Aleca is getting better at resisting the urge to stop time- except when it seems really important. And what could be more important than defending her father’s honor? She subtly gets back at a kid who made fun of him, with unexpected consequences. The other important thing is figuring out what Ford’s ability is. He’s the new boy, younger than all the other kids in the grade, very smart, full of science and math facts, and socially awkward. He has a strong need for predictable routine, and for things to be organized in a certain way, and other notable traits. I felt sure this kid was on the autism spectrum, though it wasn’t stated explicitly. I mostly liked reading this story just because of his character. Aleca thinks he’s a little odd, but she’s patient with him and quite intrigued that he can see things from the past and future. But what good does it do? She thinks she’s about to find out when Ford reports seeing a bridge that no one else can see or touch- and he can walk on it (but is scared to cross it alone). Aleca needs her Wonder aunt to help them figure this all out. Unfortunately Aunt Zephyr’s teleporting skill has become more and more unpredictable, so they have to deal with that too. And right there the story ends, you have to hop to the next book when it feels like it should just be a chapter break. I didn’t mind too much though.

Borrowed from the public library.

The team of five friends is getting ready for their first junior derby league bout. Everyone is polishing their specific skills- one girl is very fast and always has the jammer position. Kenzie is great at coming up with new strategic moves, Tomoko is good at blocking, etc. But Shelly (whose viewpoint this novel is from) doesn’t feel like she’s particularly good at any one thing. She’s always drawing though. In an effort to stand out and feel special to the team, Shelly tries turning some of her sketch ideas into actual gear accessories that could help her team win. Like glitter to burst out in a cloud startling the opponents, or something to make Bree extra fast, for example. It was crazy that she thought she could do this in just a few days- but I’ve seen kids get fixated on a wild imagining that’s difficult (or actually impossible) to bring to life. When she presents the items, eager to impress, her teammates are taken aback and skeptical. Will the stuff even work? could it be considered risky? Things don’t at all go as Shelly had hoped, but in the end, the one thing she had prepared and thought the least of, turned out to be what really made her team shine.

I didn’t like this book quite as much as the first one. Shelly’s ideas just seemed absurdly impractical. It was a bit frustrating reading a whole story about something you know is probably going to fall flat in the end. The illustrations are nicely fluid and expressive. And I like that the one girl who realized she didn’t like skating and had left the team earlier on, showed up with a significant part to play in this storyline too.

Borrowed from the public library.

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.

Aleca’s having her party at one of her favorite places- the roller-skating rink! (I was mildly annoyed that on the front cover they look like roller blades when those kids were definitely using quads in the story). She’s forced to invite all her classmates, even the kids she doesn’t like- and is particularly dreading the presence of Madison, who is mean and acting suspicious of Aleca’s secret lately. But Aleca is determined to ignore Madison and just have fun with her best friend. It’s also hard to ignore her great aunt though, who in spite of being old (by Aleca’s standards) dresses up to flaunt her skating skills. She’s actually quite impressive. Then (of course) Aleca has to freeze time to save Aunt Zephyr from a crash (and probable serious injury) on the rink, and is terrified someone might have found her out.

A new character gets introduced right near the end- a genius boy who is difficult to talk to and might have his own special ability, but it’s hard to tell if he’s even aware of it, when they can’t speak plainly. So now I have to read book three to find out more about him. I really liked the Aunt, all her zest for roller skating.  She talks about skating on the Embarcadero in San Francisco in her past, when it was closed to traffic after an earthquake, which made me grin. And when everyone cautions maybe she’s too old to risk skating anymore, she says “Instead of cowering from life, I choose to roll toward it on these small plastic wheels! And that you see, is what makes me spry!” Loved that.

Also loved how Aleca and her Aunt and later her mother, deftly thwarted Madison’s attempts to threaten and get Aleca into trouble. All by turning her words around back on herself- it was so well done.

Borrowed from the public library.

I liked this one, but it was just too short for my satisfaction (glad I had the sequel on hand already). It’s a middle-grade level book, with fairly large text and short chapters, which was great for my still-easily-taxed brain. Aleca is almost ten and feeling down because she’s not particularly skilled or talented in any one thing. Then one day at school something very strange happens- everyone around her freezes, as if time had stopped (it did). Aleca feels like she made this happen, but how? At first she uses her newfound ability to play pranks on people she doesn’t like, sleep in extra, finish homework last-minute, and (gasp) cheat on an exam. Soon regrets all (well, most) of that, especially when her eccentric great-aunt arrives for an unexpected visit. Aunt Zephyr explains what’s going on and warns her not to freeze time again, that it can have dangerous consequences. But of course Aleca is sorely tempted to do it again. Nothing bad can happen if she uses it for good, to save someone, right . . . ? Wrong!

Fun, but just when it got more interesting, the narrative stopped on kind of a cliffhanger- Aleca’s birthday party coming up, which I was particularly interested in, and she suddenly discovers maybe someone else knows about her ability (which is supposed to be kept strictly secret). So I started reading book two right away.

Borrowed from the public library.