Crushing It

May 27, 2024
Two eighth grade soccer players manage messy families, fractured friendship, and confusing feelings in Becker’s charming debut, a delight for fans of realistic, emotionally deep novels. Mel Miller, captain of her Iowa school soccer team, is keen to avenge last year’s loss in the city championships. When she isn’t thinking about soccer, she’s struggling to figure out who she is. She has been secretly writing poems that she shares with an anonymous fellow student on the school’s online message boards, not realizing it’s her teammate and former best friend Tory McNally. Meanwhile, brusque, hyper-organized Tory is navigating a strained relationship with her mother and agonizes about her rift with Mel, which was sparked by Tory’s attempts to misdirect a bully who noticed Tory’s crush on her. As the team rockets its way to the championship and as she and Tory grow closer via the message board, Mel tries to minimize growing tensions on the team and begins questioning harsh treatment from a friend. Becker lines up relatable problems and believably conflicted choices alongside a tender, slow-building romance and intense soccer matches. Mel and Tory read as white. Ages 10–up. Agent: Ann Rose, Tobias Literary Agency.

June 1, 2024
Three weeks before the Eighth-Grade Girls' City Championship, two soccer players who are former best friends develop an anonymous online friendship in this queer sports romance that explores coming-of-age themes. As captain of her soccer team, white girl Melanie Miller dreams of leading the team to a perfect winning season, especially after everything fell apart at the end of seventh grade, when Mel's group of best friends, the Fearsome Foursome, fractured in half. White center midfielder Tory McNally said "one wrong thing" last year, and all except one of her best friends abandoned her. She still has Chloe from the Fearsome Foursome, plus her new stepbrother, Terrance (both of whom are Black), but she hesitates to open up about the problems weighing on her, like her distant relationship with her mom and the crush on her former best friend that ruined everything. Super-athletic Mel also has a secret: She writes poetry. Their identities disguised by anonymous usernames, Mel and Tory unknowingly reconnect on a school message board, rekindling their relationship as they confide in one another. Affirming family and friends surround the main characters as they struggle with changing relationships and insecurities about their identities; homophobia plays only a minor role in the conflict. Unfortunately, despite the fluttering romantic tension and fast, suspenseful pace, bland characterizations of the secondary characters that lean into common tropes diminish the overall appeal of this debut. An engaging premise but not quite a game-winning goal. (Fiction. 9-13)

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July 1, 2024

Gr 5 Up-Former friends learn what happens when they swallow down the fear and doubt and just take their shot. Relatively fresh off a friendship break-up, 13-year-old soccer teammates Mel and Tory, who share narration, attempt to work together on the field but can't get along off it. Both girls are struggling with big changes and feelings. Mel secretly writes poetry and longs to show more of her real self, wanting to be defined in ways beyond Magic Mel, soccer captain. Tory, whose family has changed and whose mother is now distant, wants not to be seen differently, but just to be seen at all. Both end up filling the friendship void by anonymously messaging a pen pal through their school's message board. The girls feel like their most comfortable, happiest selves when messaging their new friend. For Tory, who hasn't told anyone she likes girls, it definitely feels like something more. Readers quickly learn they are actually messaging each other, though it takes most of the story for Mel and Tory to figure that out. Short, fast-paced chapters filled with dialogue show the honest and raw sides of middle school friendships, growth, and identity. The girls are stubborn, mean, and often not great friends to the undeveloped and underutilized secondary characters. But they also adapt to change, learn honesty, and accept that it's okay to not have all the answers but lots of questions. VERDICT An authentic, character-driven look at self-doubt and identity.-Amanda MacGregor

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2024
Grades 5-8 Last year, Mel and Tory were inseparable. Not only that, their whole group of friends seemed to share an unbreakable bond. When Tory is overheard calling Mel a disaster, however, the four friends become two teams of two. But the girls all play for the school soccer team--indeed, Mel serves as their team captain--so they are forced to work together to try to win their championship game. Meanwhile, for comfort, both Mel and Tory turn to anonymous text messaging, where Mel shares her poetry and Tory relishes having another friend after the group split. Of course, the reader knows the entire time the two frenemies are messaging each other. Told using alternating first-person narration, the chapters tick down the days to the big game, naturally building suspense and excitement. The debut author also includes text-message transcripts and some genuinely lovely poetry. With a somewhat similar--but far simpler--plot to Becky Albertalli's Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (2015), this fun, middle-grade lesbian romance should appeal to fans and nonfans of soccer alike.

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