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Summary
Summary
For fans of Make It Or Break It , a novel about the road to Olympics for the world's most elite gymnasts.
Work harder than anyone.
Be the most talented.
Sacrifice everything.
And if you're lucky, maybe you will go to the Olympics.
Grace lives and breathes gymnastics--but no matter how hard she pushes herself, she can never be perfect enough.
Leigh , Grace's best friend, has it all: a gymnastics career, a normal high-school life... and a secret that could ruin everything.
Camille wants to please her mom, wants to please her boyfriend, and most of all, wants to walk away.
Wilhelmina was denied her Olympic dream four years ago, and she won't let anything stop her again. No matter what.
Monica is terrified. Nobody believes in her--and why should they?
By the end of the two days of the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials, some of these girls will be stars. Some will be going home with nothing. And all will have their lives changed forever.
Author Notes
Caela Carter received an MFA in Writing for Children from The New School in New York. She is an author and teaches at-risk kids and teens in alternative education programs. Her middle grade books include My Life with the Liars and her young adult books include Me, Him, Them and It; My Best Friend, Maybe; and Tumbling.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Carter (My Best Friend, Maybe) takes readers into the competitive heart of elite gymnastics as five athletes fight for a coveted spot on the U.S. Olympic team. Set over two days, the story follows the girls' progress as they risk damaging their friendships, bodies, and reputations in order to be chosen. Third-person narration shifts attention among Grace, a half-Chinese world champ coached by her domineering father; tiny, "mousy" Monica, a long-shot struggling with self-confidence; Camille, the comeback kid who questions her commitment; African-American Wilhelmina, the veteran who wants a last chance at Olympic glory; and Leigh, who worries about the public finding out that she is gay. The girls have depth and heart, revealing insecurities and vulnerabilities, but also an unsurpassed determination to succeed. Through them, Carter skillfully showcases the extreme pressure gymnasts are under and the lengths they will go to win. Gymnastics-lovers of all ages will eagerly soak up this intimate look at the sport as these athletes attempt to stick their landings, gain favor with the intimidating judges, and dominate the leaderboard. Ages 12-up. Agent: Kate McKean, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Gymnasts Grace, Leigh, Camille, Wilhelmina, and Monica are competing in the Olympic trials; after eight rotations over two days, they'll learn if they made the U.S. team. With a focus on the athletes as teenagers--with (heightened) insecurities, secrets, crushes, jealousy, friendship issues, and family drama--this is a captivating look into the high-stakes world of elite gymnastics. Glos. (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Over two extreme days, 12 elite gymnasts compete to make the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team. Carter (My Life with the Liars, 2016) alternates between five girls who have made gymnastics their entire lives. Half Chinese Grace, striving for a perfection that's never enough for her father-coach, competes for the top spot against Leigh, her best friend and truest rival, whose parents accept her as a lesbian but not as a gymnast. Wilhelmina already feels out of place among the other gymnasts, because she is black and bigger-boned, and her careful training program may have wrecked her Olympic chances. Specialty vaulter Camille wants to quit but can't disappoint her mother, while nervous newbie Monica just wants to make it through without falling. Pushed to their limits, the girls question their goals and motivations in a world where accidents can happen to anyone and friendship might be outmatched by competition. Gymnastic books for teens are surprisingly few, and Carter has crafted an intense look into the pressures of this ambitious and all-consuming lifestyle.--Reagan, Maggie Copyright 2016 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Over the course of two days, five gymnasts vie for a place on the U.S. Olympic team. The girls, Grace, Leigh, Camille, Wilhelmina, and Monica, are driven to be perfect, but each of them hides a secret. These secrets include anger toward coaches, jealousy of fellow athletes, estrangement from parents, eating disorders, sexual orientation, and fear of failure. By the end of the novel, the girls' friendships and goals are intact but not without a lot of anguish and tears. The alternating points of view may be confusing at first, and listeners unfamiliar with gymnastic terms, methods of scoring, and competition rules will need a good reference book or reliable website. Narrator Emily Eiden is superb. She handles all the various characters, intonations, and emotions in a lively and energetic fashion. VERDICT Anyone interested in gymnastics, especially in this Olympic year, will find this book fascinating. ["Purchase for middle and high schools where realistic fiction is in demand": SLJ 4/16 review of the Viking book.]-Patricia Ann Owens, formerly at Illinois Eastern Community Colleges, Mt. Carmel © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Twelve girls. Two days. Only five winners.Every four years, a dozen of the United States' best female gymnasts head to the USA Gymnastics Women's Olympic Trials to compete for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. The novel's cast of hopefuls is made up of mostly white girls, with a couple of black girls, a Latina, and one girl who is half-Chinese. There's a closeted lesbian, and another is Jewish. There are mean girls and meek girls; backstabbers and best friends; veterans and "brand-new baby seniors." Some are event specialists, while others are all-arounders. The third-person narration alternates through the perspectives of five of the twelve girls, moving from girl to girl and back in labeled subsections within each chapter. Readers may have difficulty keeping characters straight; luckily there's a trials roster to keep things relatively clear. A glossary of terms is included for the uninitiated, but those heavily involved in the sport will truly understand and appreciate the nuances of scorekeeping, the politics of team assemblage, and the friends-rivals dynamics that keep life cartwheeling along behind the scenes.Faulty butt glue, waxing "down there," and dealing with a tyrannical team coordinator won't stop these girls from going for the gold. (Fiction. 12-15) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
As usual, a torrent of crippling fears ran through Leigh's bones like bolts of lightning as she watched the red flag, stone-faced, waiting for it to turn green. I forget my whole routine. I'm going to fall on my dismount. I'm the Linebacker of Gymnastics: way too big to swing around these bars like a petite nothing, like Grace. Focus! she reprimanded herself. She felt like her whole life, every Leigh in every day of her past, was lined up behind her. Every missed sleepover. Every potential friend or girlfriend whom she didn't have time for. Every lie. Every time she chose to be exceptional instead of normal. It was a series of crushing choices that shoved her up to the space where she stood right now, on the blue mat, under the uneven bars, at the Olympic trials. And it would all be pointless if she fell. Then the flag turned green, and the storm inside her poof ed away. A smile lit up her face, and she threw her hands over her head to salute the judges before popping immediately onto the high bar. Her brain turned off. It was only her body on the bars. Through every giant, every release, every transition, she was That Girl. The Other Leigh. The one who was national champion. The one who could fall every day in practice but would never let the bar slip out of her grasp in a meet. The one who smiled even as she held her breath through handstands and pirouettes atop the high bar, whose toes pointed without her telling them to, whose knees would never bend, the one who would never break. Ninety seconds later, with a double twisting backward layout, her feet were on the mat, her hands over her head. She was That Girl again. Excerpted from Tumbling by Caela Carter All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
