March 15, 2025
"Every race matters. They all get me one step closer to being the kind of girl a person can never forget." Thirteen-year-old Texan Leta "Lightning" Laurel's race is the 400-meter dash, and she has her mind set on winning the district championship. Winning gets her photo in the local paper, and maybe that will get her absentee father's attention. But it's hard to focus on running: She cares for her younger sister while her mom works two jobs and struggles to put food on the table. Adding to Leta's stress, her closest childhood friend ditches her for the popular cheerleaders. With the arrival of new eighth grader Natalie, herself a successful 400-meter competitor, the stakes are even higher. Leta, who presents white, learns about her physical limits--and her own motivations--in her race to the finish line. Leta's genuine first-person narration effectively captures the growing pains, embarrassment, and small joys to be found both on and off the track. The novel is bursting with topics that are authentic to Leta's and her peers' experiences, including anxiety, bullying, food insecurity, disordered eating, parental separation and divorce, poverty, gender inequality in sports, menstrual equity, and physical abuse. Yet the author's efforts to fully develop them all feel as cramped as Leta's feet in her too-small track shoes. Supportive adults, including Leta's progressive coach and devoted, distance-running grandfather, bring warmth that lightens the heavy subject matter. A heartfelt narrative weighed down by important but underdeveloped messages. (author's note)(Fiction. 10-14)
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Starred review from April 1, 2025
Gr 5 Up-"Junior high wasn't supposed to be this hard. But it seems like there are so many unspoken rules for girls that I never knew about before." Life is hard for Leta Laurel. Her dad left the family, her mom is trying to keep them afloat, and Leta must keep an eye on her little sister. Not to mention her struggle with navigating middle school, the horrible "lists" that she is on, and her desperate need for new track shoes. But when she is racing, she is Leta "Lightning" Laurel, fastest 400-dash runner in the school. When a girl shows up who could possibly take that title away from her, she wonders whether she should become "lighter" by not eating or push through an injury. And will winning bring her dad back? In the underwritten genre that is girl sports, Toalson has crafted a novel that can be handed to anyone. Leta is a character that every reader will connect with and root for. Add in an embarrassing grandpa, a pain-in-the-neck little sister, and a supportive cast of friends, coaches, and teachers, and it's a story that will reach every reader. VERDICT A resonant tale of a tween struggling to adapt to change; a must-buy for all middle grade collections.-Heather Lassley
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