This thoughtful review of my middle grade novel Takedown comes from former Howard County, MD librarian Barb Langridge.
Barb is the founder of the website A Book and a Hug, which I wrote about in a post for All the Wonders a few years ago: “Discover Your Reading Personality: A Book and a Hug.”
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Two words for you: Middle School. There’s a lot going on in middle school. These are those turbulent bridge years filled with insecurity and peer pressure when childhood friendships start tearing apart and you’re trying to understand who you are as an individual at the same time you’re wanting so desperately to belong and fit in.
Told in alternating points of view, this is a white water rafting ride through the eyes of two champion kids who are dealing with some real-life struggles, some happening unseen inside of them and some in the glaring spotlight of life in the hallways of their school. These are kids who are figuring it out for themselves and showing their real strength as they take themselves to the mats.
Mickey (given name Mikayla) is the youngest daughter in a family with two big brothers all successful wrestlers. She lives with her mother and her older brother Cody while her oldest brother, Evan, a state champion wrestler, has chosen to live with their father. She is following in the Delgado family tradition which means not going to the dances, not being part of the Thriller act in the school talent show with her best friend and instead choosing to win in the Thanksgiving wrestling tournament.
Mickey and her best friend are about to begin wrestling at the middle school level. But when Mickey goes to join the team her brothers always wrestled for, the coach tells her, “No girls allowed.” When Mickey finds another team that will allow the girls to wrestle, her best friend says she isn’t coming along this year.
Lev has wrestled for years. He has a goal this year and that is out wrestle and defeat Nick Spence, the guy who beat him on the mats last year and is using that win to taunt and bully.
Nick Spence: “Ask your girlfriend.”
Lev Sofer: “At least I’m not afraid to wrestle her.”
Lev is starting to get headaches. He’s struggling with himself and what he really wants to do and who he really wants to be. He’s struggling with “being a boy in middle school, always trying to measure up to the other guys who brag about football and lacrosse, who’d rather get the girls to flirt with them than get good grades.”
Turns out Mickey and Lev are going to be wrestling partners. A boy and a girl facing each other every day on the mat, practicing holds, wearing the team-issued singlet, dealing with the teasing at school from Nick and some of their own teammates.
What do you do when you’re a girl and the best team for you is all boys and won’t let you join? What do you do when your father doesn’t see you through the same lens he uses to see his two sons? What do you do when your best friend changes? What do you do when you’ve always thought the most important thing in life was to win a state championship?
What do you do when something inside of you changes and the things you thought were important to you, the things you thought defined you and gave you your identity, don’t matter to you anymore?
Read the rest of the review here.
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I am so grateful when a reader like Barb takes the time to write a review. Her insights into the book’s themes and characters are spot on.
Thank you, Barb!
