I received this book for free from Booksweet in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Freestyle: A Graphic Novel by Gale Galligan Published by Scholastic Inc. on October 18, 2022
Genres: Juvenile Fiction / Comics & Graphic Novels / General, Juvenile Fiction / Social Themes / Adolescence & Coming of Age, Juvenile Fiction / Social Themes / Friendship
Pages: 272
Format: ARC, Paperback
Source: Booksweet
From New York Times bestselling author Gale Galligan, a fun, high-energy graphic novel about friendship, family, and the last hurrahs of middle school.
Cory's dance crew is getting ready for a major competition. It's the last one before they graduate eighth grade and go their separate ways to high schools all over New York City, so they have to make it count! The group starts to have problems as their crew captain gets increasingly intense about nailing the routine, and things go from bad to worse when Cory's parents ground him for not taking his grades seriously. He gets stuck with a new tutor, Sunna, who he dismisses as a boring nerd... until he catches her secretly practicing cool yo-yo tricks. Cory wants to learn the art of yo-yo, and as his friendship with Sunna grows, he ends up missing practice and bailing on his crew -- and they are not happy about it. With mounting pressure coming from all sides, how is Cory supposed to balance the expectations of his parents, school, dance, and his new friend?
This book is about Cory Tan, local b-boy who is maybe failing out of middle school and also it is about Sunna Ahmed, local Weird Girl who is hired to tutor Cory back into the land of the learning. But it’s also about the unbelievable pressure of growing up, about how sometimes your parents just don’t understand you, and about unlikely friendships with people you didn’t expect, for reasons you never thought about before. Readalikes: THE TRYOUT, HAZEL HILL IS GONNA WIN THIS ONE, and always, JUST ROLL WITH IT. Got a middle schooler in your life? Are you a middle schooler? Have you ever been to middle school? You’ll probably like this one. Five stars.
Leave a Reply