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Book Review: Roller Girl
Feb. 9th, 2016 09:12 amI quite enjoyed Victoria Jamieson’s Roller Girl, a graphic novel about roller derby that got a Newbery Honor award this year. It’s sort of one-half sports movie (with a few knowing winks at this fact: there’s an awesome scene where Astrid brainstorms training techniques that she’s culled from sports movies, ending with “watch more sports movies”) and one-half friendship drama.
When twelve-year-old Astrid joins roller derby summer camp, she expects her best friend Nicole to follow along with her plans the way that Nicole usually does. But Nicole has other plans: she’s going to attend ballet summer camp.
I loved the sports movie half - Astrid is endearingly terrible at roller skating for pretty much the entire book, and it’s amazing watching her power through that because she wants to do roller derby so damn much - and I thought the friendship half was well done, even though it’s kind of painful to read.
( Spoilers )
Also, Astrid is probably the gayest children’s book character ever. The book never comes right out and says this, but there’s a lot of evidence to support it. Astrid joins roller derby in part because she’s infatuated with one of the derby players, Rainbow Bite. She gets a Rainbow Bite poster and hangs it over her bed. She repeatedly mentions how horrible she finds Nicole’s burgeoning interest in boys (and clothes, and ballet, and other girly things, but the boy thing is most salient).
Plus, she wears frickin’ rainbow socks as part of her derby outfit. She wears rainbow socks on the book cover. Rainbow socks which Nicole bought for her. How much more clearly could Nicole say, “I love and support you even though I don’t swing that way”? NICOLE IS THE BEST FRIEND EVER AND YOU SHOULD TREASURE HER LIKE A RARE AND BEAUTIFUL JEWEL, ASTRID.
When twelve-year-old Astrid joins roller derby summer camp, she expects her best friend Nicole to follow along with her plans the way that Nicole usually does. But Nicole has other plans: she’s going to attend ballet summer camp.
I loved the sports movie half - Astrid is endearingly terrible at roller skating for pretty much the entire book, and it’s amazing watching her power through that because she wants to do roller derby so damn much - and I thought the friendship half was well done, even though it’s kind of painful to read.
( Spoilers )
Also, Astrid is probably the gayest children’s book character ever. The book never comes right out and says this, but there’s a lot of evidence to support it. Astrid joins roller derby in part because she’s infatuated with one of the derby players, Rainbow Bite. She gets a Rainbow Bite poster and hangs it over her bed. She repeatedly mentions how horrible she finds Nicole’s burgeoning interest in boys (and clothes, and ballet, and other girly things, but the boy thing is most salient).
Plus, she wears frickin’ rainbow socks as part of her derby outfit. She wears rainbow socks on the book cover. Rainbow socks which Nicole bought for her. How much more clearly could Nicole say, “I love and support you even though I don’t swing that way”? NICOLE IS THE BEST FRIEND EVER AND YOU SHOULD TREASURE HER LIKE A RARE AND BEAUTIFUL JEWEL, ASTRID.
