Boost

This is a great book for girls who love sports. Savvy Christopher, 13 has just moved to Rhode Island from New Mexico. She and her sister Callie are in sports. Savvy is a basketball player, its her passion pretty much. Callie is a gymnist and a cheerleader. Over the summer Callie has gained weight do to being depressed that she had to move away from her hometown, big house, and friends. Savvy is trying out for U-18 Fire basketball team. She makes the team, but her coach and the other players are hard on her because she is younger than them and she has a lot of talent. Well Savvy is at a game when a rival teammate finds a bag of steroids in her bag. She is investigated, and suspended from the team until further notice. She is not allowed to play in her teams tournament the next day. Savvy is having a drug test to prove those pills aren't hers. To find out if they are hers or not read this great book!

Great character development and story. My ten year old sports loving son (and I) loved it. Kathy Mackel is a great author. MadCat is also excellent.

Please check out my student-run blog - where all we do is review current teen fiction! http://blogs.ellingtonschools.org/larkin/ Do you play basketball? I sure don't. Why you ask? Well, I'm as clumsy as an elephant trying to stand on one leg. But that didn't stop me from loving the book, Boost. Savvy Christopher and her family moved onto a ranch in Rhode Island, leaving behind their beautiful home in Texas and all their friends. I would hate moving that distance, wouldn't you? Anyways, Savvy is an amazing basketball player, and even though she's only 13, she's 6 foot 2. (Whoa, talk about your WNBA player!) Savvy plays basketball well enough to earn a spot on the U-18 team, The Fire. The season is going great for Savvy, until a rival player sees steroids in Savvy's gym bag. This is where everything starts going down hill. Savvy tries to keep everything under control, but it's as hard as splitting an atom into smaller and smaller pieces. The worst part is, she's not allowed to play in her team's basketball tournament because they need the drug testing results first, to see if she was really taking steroids or not. I was on the edge of my seat reading to find out if the pills were really Savvy's. What was that? You want to know if the pills were hers? Well, don't expect me to tell you! Go get that book and get reading! I can easily say that Kathy Mackel is an outstanding author. The beginning starts off automatically interesting, with Savvy trying out for The Fire. Her practice makes perfect, and what do you know, she's on the team! And she's not just on the team; she becomes the star player of the team. This book gave me a mixture of feelings at all different points. Happy, mad, frustrated, giggly, depressed, heart broken and most of all... ecstatic! I was mostly ecstatic throughout the book because there were so many points that I wanted to jump and scream for joy. When they won their first game against Power, I knew then and there that no one could beat them. At many points I wanted to hop into the book and be a character, because it seemed like the characters in the book had more fun than real people. Bottom line, this book was stupendous in so many different ways. As you could see, I loved this book to the bottom of my heart. Reviewed by Megan C.

This is the perfect book for any girl who loves sports, especially basketball and cheerleading, for anyone with a sister, or for anyone who just wants a great story. Well-written, fast-paced action, and thought-provoking.