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Summary
Summary
Joey Jordan loves gymnastics: the thrill of performing a backflip on the beam, the cheers of the audience when she sticks a landing. But even with all her talent and style, she's never quite made it to that gold medal stand.
Now big changes shake up Joey's life in and out of the gym. Joey wants to break out some daring new beam and floor routines--but she'll have to defy her strict coach to do it. Her best friend, Alex, is thinking about quitting gymnastics for good. And an old friend named Tanner just moved back to town, and he's suddenly gotten very, very cute. Can Joey handle all the challenges coming her way, and make her gold medal summer happen at last?
Drawing on her real-life experience as a competitive gymnast, acclaimed novelist Donna Freitas delivers both a terrific gymnastics story and a classic novel about stretching some limits, bending the rules, and finding your balance.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Joey Jordan, 14, craves one thing: to win gold at the Regionals gymnastics meet this summer, and she's willing to go against her parents' wishes and give up a "normal" teenage life to do it. But Joey's competitiveness falters when her best friend, Alex, decides to quit gymnastics, and a cute boy from her past shows up and wants to hang out. In her first middle-grade novel, YA author and PW contributor Freitas (The Survival Kit) offers young readers plenty to relate to: living in the shadow of a perfect older sibling, battling with parents over life's choices, and handling insecurities that make it seem like failure is looming large. Her story also focuses intently on gymnastics: its demanding training, the rivalries between competitors, and the challenges of a sport that requires physicality, grace, and showmanship. It's a predictable but enjoyable story of a girl overcoming obstacles to realize her dreams, and for readers who have dreamed of trying out the balance beam or uneven bars, Joey's story will be captivating. Ages 9-12. Agent: Miriam Altshuler, Miriam Altshuler Literary Agency. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Top gymnast Joey loves her sport and can't understand why her best friend would quit just to have a social life--or why Joey's older sister quit after winning Nationals, or why their parents find competitions too stressful to watch. Former competitive gymnast Freitas provides an absorbing look at the challenging but rewarding life of a thirteen-year-old athlete. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Fourteen-year-old Joey Jordan accepts the demands of gymnastics: grueling practices, the necessity for intense focus, and a promise to avoid boys. She's hopeful she can finally medal at this summer's regional competition, but she's afraid the program her coach has chosen for her doesn't maximize her strengths. Further complicating matters, Joey's best friend quits the sport; her parents aren't especially supportive of her goals; and a former friend, Tanner, returns to town looking very cute. Former competitive gymnast Freitas writes knowingly of the requirements of this sport and never sugarcoats descriptions of competing through injury, confidence-destroying snide remarks from competitors, and seemingly cruel ultimatums from coaches. Joey opts to remain in her sport, and her confrontation with her coach is successful because she has matured emotionally. Subplots involving Joey's sister (who quit the sport at 15) and a helpful assistant coach are also well integrated. A cut above the usual sports series fare, this makes a good choice for gymnastic fans not quite ready for Joshua C. Cohen's Leverage (2011).--Weisman, Kay Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
WOMEN'S gymnastics has long been one of the most enthralling Olympic sports. The style and panache of those airtight routines; the sheer thrill of watching a contestant fearlessly catapult herself into space, twisting wildly. That most of the athletes are powerhouse teenage girls (the Olympics minimum age is 16) makes the spectacle even more captivating, and not just because they're young and typically photogenic. In our short-attention-span era, we're both inspired and intrigued by the athletes' intense discipline and singular focus. The dark side of the gymnasium holds its own fascination, of course. See: concerns about injuries to still-growing girls; overbearing coaches; delayed puberty; the dangers of eating disorders; and the rest. So it makes sense that as the Summer Olympic Games loom and the third season of "Make It or Break It," a drama about teenage London-bound gymnasts, appears on ABC Family, a handful of middle-grade books about the sport have surfaced. Synchronicity aside, a gymnast's training ground would seem an obvious setting in which to explore and tease out the problems so many girls face during middle school: the pressure to be the best; the search to find oneself while fitting in with teammates; the obsession over weight and body image; the overly involved momagers and the quick-to-backstab-competitive frenemies, The four-book Go-for-Gold series, written by the 1996 Olympic gold medalist Dominique Moceanu and Alicia Thompson, and "Gold Medal Summer" by Donna Freitas ("This Gorgeous Game," "The Possibilities of Sainthood") do just that, while also highlighting issues particular to girls' gymnastics, like the incredible demands of a training schedule and the dental of a life outside the gym. Each book in the Go-for-Gold series revolves around a team in Austin, Tex. In "Winning Team," the first novel, the Ohio transplant Britt Morgan, a compact and aggressive home-schooled firecracker, attempts to win over her new teammates: insecure Jessie; quiet, hardworking Noelle; and haughty Christina Time and time again, Britt's good intentions' go awry in cringe-inducing ways, with pranks that hopelessly backfire and overconfident pronouncements that come off as hurtful mean-girling. A show-off who doesn't realize that her spotlight-hogging is a major faux pas among peers, Britt is also a lonely newcomer desperate for approval. To be fully accepted by the team, she realizes, she has to earn their trust. Noelle Onesti (a nod to the Olympic legend Nadia Comaneci's hometown, Onesti, Romania?) is the voice of the series's second book, "Balancing Act." Noelle's aloof exterior, we discover when she is given her own story, hides the intense family pressure she's under, as her Romanian immigrant parents struggle to find the money to send her to Nationals. Meanwhile, Noelle is preoccupied by her crush on a much older boy and is worried about her brother's late-night sneaking out. Are years of perfecting her double tuck and her family's significant financial sacrifices for naught if she can't afford the plane ticket to Nationals? For a sport that's all about pizazz and personality, the staid prose and clunky story lines in the Go-for-Gold series are disappointing. While both books offer a glimpse inside this exclusive world, along with important lessons about the payoffs of hard work, discipline and team cooperation, those who aren't interested in descriptions of elaborate routines ("She did a flawless Onodi to twist herself into a forward-facing position"; "We would be expected to stick three beam dismounts and to do five first and second halves on bars") might be better served learning those lessons elsewhere. "Gold Medal Summer" more successfully reflects the competitive gymnast's spunk, thanks to Donna Freitas's flashier style and relatable protagonist, 13-year-old Joey Jordan. Used to paling in comparison with her best friend, Joey has a real chance to win at Regionale, thanks to Alex's newfound - and distracting - romance. (For these girls, the rule is no boys allowed.) After watching her sister Julia retire from gymnastics, exhausted and injured, at 16, Joey's parents, especially her bohemian painter mother, are less than supportive of Joey's quest. In a counterintuitive twist, they're more hopeful that she'll dump gymnastics for a boy she likes than they are that she'll win Regionale. Even given the magic of gymnastics and the girls' sense of accomplishment, the reader wonders whether the sacrifice the sport entails is worth it. In all three of these novels, first love is forsaken for the commitment; Joey tells her crush repeatedly that she can't have him in her life lest she lose focus. This could be a positive message - don't ditch your passion for a boy! - but after reading the umpteenth demanding-coach scene, it's easy to feel that these girls are trapped in their sport, excelling in one area while giving up the natural explorations that define adolescence. Whitney Joiner is a co-author of "The Drama Years," a book for parents of middle school children.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-Joey Jordan 13, is an elite gymnast-she spends eight hours a day at the gym, leaving little time for boys, friends outside of her teammates, and other typical teenage activities. Her older sister retired from gymnastics after winning the national title, and Joey's parents are so burned out that they don't even attend her competitions. But things are changing. Joey's best friend is thinking about giving up gymnastics. Joey is working behind the back of her ultra-strict coach with her sister and assistant coach on new routines that play more to her strengths. And she's become reacquainted with an old friend who's now incredibly "hot" and wants to be her boyfriend-but boyfriends are forbidden because they can destroy an athlete's focus. Joey has never won a gold medal at competitions, but she wonders if she can win the upcoming regional championships and then go further. Donna Freitas was a competitive gymnast, and her novel (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books, 2012) convincingly presents the stress, excitement, pain, and pure joy of the sport. Jaselyn Blanchard convincingly portrays the young protagonist as well as the other characters. Although many aspects of the story are predictable, the plot and characters will appeal to the many tweens who will be particularly interested in gymnastics after the success of this year's U.S. Olympic team.-Margo Tanenbaum, Rancho Cucamonga Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.