Blair, Kelsey. Pick and Roll.
March 19th 2014 by James Lorimer & Company
E ARC from Netgalley.com
Jazz Smith-Mohapatra is in contention for the best
basketball player on her team with her long time best friend, Cindy, but when
Jazz is involved in a play on the court that ends with Catherine, from the
other team, having a severe concussion. She has to appear in a hearing, but is
absolved of blame, but still feels awful. Her friendship with Cindy also starts
to fall apart, and Jazz doesn’t quite know why. Another teammate, Ella,
befriends her, helps her with her math and supports her through the trauma of
having injured another player, but does want a favor in return—she suspects
that Cindy has stolen a pocket watch belonging to her friend Adam, who is geeky
and often picked on. Jazz still struggles in school, is spooked on the court
because she is afraid of causing injury to another player, and slowly begins to
realize that her friendship with Cindy may be damaged beyond repair.
Strengths: Another good entry from Lorimer Sports, and I
will definitely investigate the other titles in this series. Interesting, short
and solid story of a girl playing basketball and dealing with life.
Weaknesses: The break up of the friendship would have been
more poignant if Cindy hadn’t been quite so evil and mean to Adam.
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