September 22, 2026 by HarperCollins
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Shayla has made a lot of changes to her activities in A Good Kind of Trouble (2019), and is now fully invested in the track team. She's not all that confident in her running skills, and doesn't feel as comfortable with teammates Tyra and Neema as she does with her best friends Julia and Isabella, so helps them with various pranks that they want to carry out. The pranks make her uncomfortable, but she is assured that there won't be any that cause any undo damage or distress. They are things like hiding another team's running shoes. Shayla really wants to qualify for the Junior Olympics, because she feels it will help her to fit in, and she will feel successful, like her older sister Hana. When she notices that a teammate has a picture of a relative who died on her shirt, Shayla thinks about all of the problems in her city, and wants to shed light on the plight of murdered women of color. Not only that, but the girl has had her stuffed rabbit stolen as a prank, and her sister was the one to give her the rabbit. Shayla is also concerned about her mother's grandmother, Mama Dear, who lives in an area of Los Angeles that has had some problems ever since the South Central LA freeway went in, and the 1965 riots occurred. Will she be able to navigate difficult friend relationships, qualify for the Junior Olympics, and keep her family safe?
Strengths: I love learning about Black history, and would like to see Ramée do a fictional book at the 1965 Watts riots from Mama Dear's perspective; English's It All Comes Down to This (2017) and Woods' When Winter Robeson Came are the only other book I can think of that covers this event. Shayla is a typical middle schooler, who sometimes knows what she wants (qualify for the Junior Olympics) and sometimes struggles with how to run her own life! It's great to see that even though she has some anxiety about things, she keeps trying, and also that her parents are both there to support her. There are some good track details, although as a former coach I had some issues with the pranking that went on! Ramée has a very readable style, and the book moves quickly.
Weaknesses: Seven years is a long time in the middle grade world (Shayla would have graduated from high school two years ago!) , but I'm sure some readers will be glad of this continuation of Shayla's story. The first book hasn't circulated as well as expected in my school library (it is 384 pages long, and looks a bit daunting), so my purchase of this will depend on how far I can stretch my budget.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who liked Draper's Blended, Marks' From the Desk of Zoe Washington or Giles' Take Back the Block.
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Shayla has made a lot of changes to her activities in A Good Kind of Trouble (2019), and is now fully invested in the track team. She's not all that confident in her running skills, and doesn't feel as comfortable with teammates Tyra and Neema as she does with her best friends Julia and Isabella, so helps them with various pranks that they want to carry out. The pranks make her uncomfortable, but she is assured that there won't be any that cause any undo damage or distress. They are things like hiding another team's running shoes. Shayla really wants to qualify for the Junior Olympics, because she feels it will help her to fit in, and she will feel successful, like her older sister Hana. When she notices that a teammate has a picture of a relative who died on her shirt, Shayla thinks about all of the problems in her city, and wants to shed light on the plight of murdered women of color. Not only that, but the girl has had her stuffed rabbit stolen as a prank, and her sister was the one to give her the rabbit. Shayla is also concerned about her mother's grandmother, Mama Dear, who lives in an area of Los Angeles that has had some problems ever since the South Central LA freeway went in, and the 1965 riots occurred. Will she be able to navigate difficult friend relationships, qualify for the Junior Olympics, and keep her family safe?
Strengths: I love learning about Black history, and would like to see Ramée do a fictional book at the 1965 Watts riots from Mama Dear's perspective; English's It All Comes Down to This (2017) and Woods' When Winter Robeson Came are the only other book I can think of that covers this event. Shayla is a typical middle schooler, who sometimes knows what she wants (qualify for the Junior Olympics) and sometimes struggles with how to run her own life! It's great to see that even though she has some anxiety about things, she keeps trying, and also that her parents are both there to support her. There are some good track details, although as a former coach I had some issues with the pranking that went on! Ramée has a very readable style, and the book moves quickly.
Weaknesses: Seven years is a long time in the middle grade world (Shayla would have graduated from high school two years ago!) , but I'm sure some readers will be glad of this continuation of Shayla's story. The first book hasn't circulated as well as expected in my school library (it is 384 pages long, and looks a bit daunting), so my purchase of this will depend on how far I can stretch my budget.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who liked Draper's Blended, Marks' From the Desk of Zoe Washington or Giles' Take Back the Block.
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
ARC provided by the publisher
Interesting biography in the Muslim Mavericks series. Unfortunately, the writing style seems very young, and there's not quite enough information to make this a good choice for research. It was inspiring, and I would buy it for an elementary school library, but will pass for middle school.
From the publisher:
From the prolific Pulitzer Prize–nominated Muslim reporter Dr. Seema Yasmin comes the second book in the exciting nonfiction Muslim Mavericks chapter book series, about Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah.
From Somalia to the Olympic arena, there’s no distance Mo can’t go!
At the age of eight, Mo Farah and his family moved across the world from Somalia to London. It was difficult starting over in a new country, especially since he spoke very little English. But fortunately for Mo, running is a language everyone understands.
Once he started, he never stopped—smashing records and winning championships. Now, having won gold at four Olympics and earned six World titles, he is the most successful male track distance runner ever!
From Somalia to the Olympic arena, there’s no distance Mo can’t go!
At the age of eight, Mo Farah and his family moved across the world from Somalia to London. It was difficult starting over in a new country, especially since he spoke very little English. But fortunately for Mo, running is a language everyone understands.
Once he started, he never stopped—smashing records and winning championships. Now, having won gold at four Olympics and earned six World titles, he is the most successful male track distance runner ever!
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