Action, realism and heart, a great
combo.
Fiction – YA
– Contemporary
314 pages
Publication
Date: 2013
I
received this book free from the author in exchange for a fair review.
Josie
Peters is ready to take her BMX riding to the next level when she finds a
chance to join a girls’ team and travel to competitions. With some new friends and support from the
old ones Josie spends the summer trying to make her dream of qualifying for the
Ultimate BMX freestyle event and a possible sponsorship deal come true. To the most of the BMX world sponsorship is a
sign of success, but just when Josie might have everything she thinks she wants
she has to decide for herself what success looks like.
So,
first of all I know this is a story about BMX bike riding, but you don’t have
to know about that world to read it. The
themes transcend the setting, (Yep, I just got all philosophical and used a big
concept. My parents like to occasionally
see my college education shine through.) and things like the tricks are
reasonably explained. So don’t let that
put you off. Okay now that the BMX thing
is covered we can get onto the actual review.
At
the beginning I was a little nervous for the story, but quickly got over it as
I fell into Josie’s world. I mean, I
read it in one day so that is always a good sign when a book can compete with
the rest of my life. The writing is
straight forward with no frills and focuses mostly on Josie’s emotional journey
from a first person perspective. The
story itself is very realistic from the high school experiences, online issues
and complicated relationships Josie has with others and herself. It is also exciting and action pact taking on
some very unexpected turns. The story
touches on romance and sex, but neither of those are the real important focus
and I loved that; a real positive message to teenage girls about putting things
in perspective.
All of the characters are carefully and
lovingly crafted to have texture, depth, individuality and a nice realism – no
real comic relief characters in this one.
Josie, is a real teenage girl, with normal and natural reactions. She is emotional, but self-contained, driven
to achieve her goals, and trying to grow up, amongst others expectations and
even her own. Josie fights not only
against external constraints, but also against the mental blocks she puts up
herself. She has to figure out how to be
strong enough to do “her own thing” and decide what is more important, her own
false glory or being an encourager to others.
I like how Josie’s new teammates show how different styles of girls can
still participate in and be good at sports, whether it is girlie, boy crazy
Alexis or no nonsense Lauryn. And I
really like how the story lets the girls remain girls even though they are in a
“boys sport”. I also respect Ms. Avivi’s
choice not to vilify Josie’s parents and keep them on the same team. Ms. Avivi chooses to make them into real
parents who are genuinely concerned and wanting the best for Josie, even it
scares them or stresses Josie out. As a
parent myself I really could understand their motivation and how hard it was
for them to make wise choices.
Finishing
the book all I could think about how much I enjoyed it and my wish to read more
about Josie soon. Definitely a winner!
