Blurb:
Sophie Washington is trying out
for the tennis team, and she’s excited to get a chance to play with her good
friends Chloe and Mariama. That is until wacky Coach Quackenbush matches her
with school misfit, Mackenzie “Big Mac” Clark, and things quickly go downhill.
Sophie has nothing in common with her partner, who does odd things like run off
the court in the middle of practice, and she’s disappointed when Mackenzie
shows no interest in the secret handshake she made up. After getting called out
by the coach, being hit on the head with a tennis ball, and jokingly called the
“most valuable player,” by mean older girls on the team, when she’s clearly
not, Sophie’s ready to throw in the towel. Trying to fit in with the mean girls
by making fun of Mackenzie behind her back makes things worse. Mackenzie starts
skipping practice, and then gets sick at school, and Sophie realizes that
there’s more to her doubles partner than meets the eye. What started out as a
total mismatch could be the best partnership of all.
Excerpt:
To get us ready for our upcoming
match against our rival school, St. Regis, Coach Quackenbush has us play
practice matches. Valentina’s grandma has to work late and is picking her up at
four-thirty this afternoon, and Toby and Nathan’s track practice was cancelled
because their coach is out of town, so they come to watch us.
“Do good for me guys!” says
Valentina from the nearby mini bleachers. “Let’s go! Vamanos!”
“All right, we’ve gone over the rules of
tennis earlier today, so you know how to keep score,” says Coach Quackenbush.
He’s wearing a whistle around his neck and carries his usual clipboard. “I want
you to play each other, and the team that wins two out of three games will be
declared the winner. Since we only have three singles players, I’ll work with
Kennedy while Lindsey and Jackie go against each other. All right. Let’s see
how we do, team!”
“All right!” we all parrot.
“Good luck in your matches,
guys,” Chloe says to the eighth-grade girls.
“We don’t need luck unlike you
little sixth graders,” says Kennedy. “We have talent.”
She and the older girls flounce
off to their courts.
“Whatever,” says Chloe with a
roll of her eyes.
“They think they are ‘all that’
just because they were on the team last year,” says Mariama. “I’d love to beat
them in a game.”
“Forget them,” I say and pick up
a can of new tennis balls Coach Quackenbush left on the court for us. “Come on,
let’s get going.”
“Okay, let’s get started,” says Chloe. Her
frilly red tennis skirt swings around her hips as she smacks the ball to us for
the first serve. It bounces high in the air toward me.
“I got it!” I race forward.
“Mine!” Mackenzie comes over to
my side of the court from the other direction. Surprised at her quick movement,
I stumble.
Wham!
We run into each other. The ball
bounces off my head, and I stagger to keep from falling.
My Review:
4.5 stars
This is the fourth book in this
series that I’ve reviewed as this is one of my favorite series for middle grade
readers because it tackles real-life issues in creative, realistic ways while
teaching important life lessons.
This time around, the lessons are
about taking the time to understand and accept others who are different than
you as well as dealing with peer pressure. It also delves into health and
wellness issues, which is all I’m going to say to avoid spoilers.
As someone who has gone through
the struggle of trying to get a medical diagnosis while dealing with others who
didn’t understand what I was going through, I related with Mackenzie 100%. It
was refreshing to see how this was handled in a way that both makes sense for
the target audience without hiding the struggles and not-so-fun parts.
The only odd part of this story
to me was the hyper focus on sports. After reading three books in the series
which focused more on academics, it was a little odd to see such a shift in the
opposite direction with apparent balance of sports and academics. I also found
some of the word choices a little odd. However, these were minor things I noticed in the story, which was
overall a great teaching tale and another great addition to the Sophie
Washington series.
Don’t forget to visit the other stops on the tour.
Author Bio and Links:
Tonya Duncan Ellis is the author
of the Amazon bestselling, Readers' Favorite "Five Star" rated,
Sophie Washington children's books series, geared toward readers ages 8 to 12,
and is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
(SCBWI). She has received awards for literary excellence, worked as a
journalist and freelance magazine writer, and is a graduate of Centre College
of Kentucky and Washington University in St. Louis.
The Sophie Washington book series
recounts the adventures of a precocious African American preteen from Houston,
TX and her diverse group of friends. Each funny and heartwarming story teaches
lessons about friendship, responsibility, truthfulness and perseverance. Books
in the series include Queen of the Bee, The Snitch, Things You Didn't Know
About Sophie, The Gamer, Hurricane, Mission: Costa Rica, Secret Santa, Code One
and Mismatch.
Tonya loves to travel and has
visited 49 American states and three continents, but some of her best journeys
have been between the pages of a novel. As a girl she could always be found
with a book in her hand, and reading is still one of her favorite hobbies. When
she's not reading or writing, the author likes to ride her bike, swim, and
spend time with her husband and three children. She lives in Missouri City, TX.
