March 1, 2022
A former competitive gymnast tries to reimagine her life. When a diagnosis of spinal stenosis forces 15-year-old Caroline to quit gymnastics, the Kansas state beam champion doesn't know what to do next. Her best friends, Sunny Chavez and Peregrine Liu, still practice seven hours a day. But Caro's older brother's best friend, rising senior and tennis star Alex Zavala, offers to spend the rest of the summer coaching her in other sports she might enjoy. When Caro discovers that Alex has a crush on Sunny, she and Peregrine spend a long time plotting to get them together only for Caro to discover that she herself has a crush on Alex. Fortunately, Alex reciprocates--just when Caro also falls in love with tennis and it's time for the big tournament at the local country club. Henning was herself a high-level gymnast, and it shows: The brief scenes of Caro in the gym attempting high-level maneuvers crackle with authenticity and tension. The rest is a fairly standard teen rom-com with lots of descriptions of food and clothes, lots of who-drives-whom-where, and plenty of snarky conversation. Caro's being forced to give up her dream offers scope for real emotional complexity, but Henning doesn't dig for it; the novel stays on the surface, easy enough to read but not particularly compelling. Caro and Alex read as White; Sunny and Peregrine are cued as having Latinx and East Asian heritage, respectively. A light read with room to delve deeper. (Fiction. 12-18)
COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
April 15, 2022
Grades 7-10 Fifteen-year-old Caroline "Caro" Kepler is an award-winning gymnast whose promising career abruptly ends after her chronic back pain worsens and she takes a serious fall. Her life's passion disintegrates into an unfillable void until her brother's best friend and teammate, Alex Zavala, offers to introduce her to other sports she might enjoy. In return, Caroline successfully plays matchmaker between Alex and her friend Sunny Chavez. As Caro finds joy in new sports, she begins to realize she is much more than her past glories. However, she didn't count on also developing a massive crush on Alex, which makes her feel like a modern-day Emma Woodhouse. Caroline is an endearing narrator whose struggles to regain purpose are genuine, making her story extremely cheer-worthy. Henning, a former sportswriter, bases the book on her own experiences as a former competitive gymnast who had to change sports. She infuses the narrative with her own passion and the hot-button topics of perfectionism in athletics and the destructiveness of sports injuries. Readers need not be sports-minded to join Team Caro.
COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
June 20, 2022
Fifteen-year-old Kansas native Caroline Kepler is on her way to becoming a member of an elite gymnastics team when a bad fall off the balance beam worsens her already compromised back, forcing her to quit. Devastated, Caro withdraws emotionally, believing she has no identity without gymnastics until her older brother’s best friend, tennis star and all-around athlete Alex Zavala, offers to coach her in a different sport every week during the summer until she finds a new niche. Suddenly, Caro’s free time is filled with learning the rudiments of volleyball, running, and golf, until she eventually settles on tennis. As thanks for Alex’s coaching, Caro intends to set him up with his longtime crush Sunny Chavez, Caro’s former gymnastics teammate. But when Caro realizes that she has feelings for Alex, she must maneuver her own vacillating self-worth, her brother’s disapproval of the duo’s potential relationship, and nerves surrounding an impending tennis tournament. Former sports journalist and gymnast Henning (The Queen Will Betray You) writes with experience and compassion, never underplaying Caro’s grief over the future she believes she’s lost. Supportive and bighearted characters populate this optimistic novel. Most characters cue as white; Sunny reads as Latinx. Ages 12–up. Agent: Whitney Ross, Irene Goodman Agency.