The Comeback

Thank you to FSG and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book. I was not compensated for this review and these are my honest opinions.

Even though I'm not watching much of the Winter Olympics, I felt inspired to pick this book up in spirit. And I'm glad I did! This heartwarming book takes place in the Adirondacks and centers around Maxine's experience as a middle school student and rising figure skater.

What I loved about this book is that Maxine is really just a normal kid. She has talent as a figure skater but she also isn't necessarily the best of the best, or the underdog. I also thought this book got serious with racism in a way that felt very apt for the age group and also the times we're in. I'd highly recommend this.

This is a great realistic middle grade story about the hard work that goes into being a young competitive figure skater as well as the hard work that goes into being strong in the face of microagressions at school. I really loved Maxine's arc and especially the way she deals with her own jealousy of a new skater compared to the way the racist mean boy at school deals with his issues, and I appreciated that it's a story about bullying where the moral isn't “but also the bully was sad and what about his feelings”?