By Victoria Jamieson
A Newbery Honor graphic novel about the summer one best friend falls in love with roller derby and the other one doesn't.
Astrid and Nicole have been best friends forever, the kind who just assume they'll do everything together. Then Astrid gets swept up in roller derby, tough and loud and thrilling, and signs up for a summer camp certain Nicole will come too. Nicole picks dance camp instead, and starts spending time with Rachel, a girl Astrid can't stand. So Astrid heads to derby camp on her own, learning to skate and jam and pick herself up off the track, idolizing a star jammer and dreading the texts from Nicole that never come. It's funny and fast, with roller-derby action on nearly every page.
For a child watching a best friendship quietly change, Astrid's summer says the true thing: it hurts, and it isn't the end of the world, and you get to become your own person in the middle of it. The roller-derby energy keeps it from ever feeling like a sad book, so a reluctant or action-loving reader stays glued while the real emotional work happens underneath the wheels. It's a Newbery Honor graphic novel that reads in an afternoon, and it models grit, sticking with something hard until you're good at it, right alongside the friendship story.