Sunday, March 30, 2014

Being Sloane Jacobs.

16067180Morrill, Lauren. Being Sloane Jacobs.
January 7th 2014 by Delacorte
Copy from Young Adult Books Central and reviewed there.   

Sloane Emily Jacobs is the pampered daughter of a senator who is expected to really excel at figure skating. Sloane Devon Jacobs is a hockey player from a tough Philadelphia neighborhood who has some anger management issues. Both girls are sent to camps for their respective sports in Montreal. They have a hostile meeting in a hotel, their bags are switched, and they decide to switch places, mistakenly thinking that the others' sport is easier. They find out differently. Not only are both sports physically grueling, but there are mean girls in each, and a lot of competition. Both girls struggle with perfecting a new sport, meet cute boys, and deal with escalating family problems. Is the grass really greener on the other side of the ice?
Strengths: This was just the sort of book a lot of my 8th grade girls want. I enjoyed the fact that the girls had a lot of other interests other than the boys, but there was a bit of romance as well, and nothing inappropriate. Both girls get to show how difficult their sport is, and there are a ton of good details. For fans of Freitas' Gold Medal Winter, Messner's Sugar and Ice, and Davis' The Boyfriend Game.
Weaknesses: From the cover, I thought this would be a much sappier romance. A cover with a pair of figure skates and a pair of hockey skates would have been much better!

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