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bjg222's review
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
danileighta's review against another edition
2.0
Hm, I rarely give poor ratings. Often if I don't have anything nice to say, I say nothing at all on here, but I felt this was worth reviewing. So, I appreciated some of the pieces of this story, but the full picture was just... confusing, disjointed, and did not feel whole. The character development was half way accomplished. Though there was plenty of implication of depth to the characters, the writing never quite made them real.
I can't recommend this book as one that will catch the imagination of the YA crowd. It did have great representation in many different ways, but there are books with much better stories and characters and illustrations that will be more worth your time.
I can't recommend this book as one that will catch the imagination of the YA crowd. It did have great representation in many different ways, but there are books with much better stories and characters and illustrations that will be more worth your time.
laura_cs's review against another edition
3.0
This book is very well done, with wonderful illustrations, powerful lessons, and plenty to relate to whether it's friend drama, boy drama, middle school drama, growing up drama. Lots of drama.
To say that these girls are not the best at soccer is a huge understatement. The MC, Faith, doesn't even know the rules but couldn't say no to the popular older girl doing the recruiting. Their goalie is afraid of the ball, but rocks out in the music room. These girls are all a big huge mess, but, by the end of it their a huge mess together, bonding and having fun in ways that don't involve soccer.
While I did like the great amount of diversity represented in this book, the story, and the look into the lives of each of the girls, there's some things that I felt distracted from the story or made it hard to keep up. One page is entirely in Spanish that my high school and college Spanish classes combined were useless with no translation within. (Great for native Spanish speakers, though, due to the rarity, and comics/graphic novels are a wonderful way for learning English as a second language). I wished that the Latina, Spanish speaking character in question, V, was able to stay through the whole story, because--especially with her one spotlight page being entirely in Spanish--I felt like I didn't get to know her at all.
Nadia, a hijab wearing girl, was also awesome but bringing her in halfway through the story seemed more like checking off a list and also lost a lot of time to develop her character for the audience, not to mention even less time to form a real bond with the rest of the team.
Also, the story within the story--Faith's dream/art world--was okay and did serve a purpose, but, again, felt like it distracted from the main story and hindered getting to know the characters better.
A last thing to mention is that finding books with girls in sports is hard to come by, especially books that focus on girls playing sports and not as an aside 'Oh, she does gymnastics/ballet/cheer/softball/track/soccer/etc.' thing. None of these girls--except Nadia--really, actually cared about the game or actively wanted to improve. As a girl who played soccer from kindergarten through senior year of high school, I would have loved a graphic novel about a bunch of soccer playing and loving girls when I was in middle school because they were so hard to come by. So as a grown woman I appreciate the diversity, the friendships, the strong female characters in this story... but would have appreciated a little more love for the Beautiful Game from the characters.
In short, this is a good story with good lessons and cute art and a wonderful array of female characters, and I know a lot of late-elementary/early middle school girls will love this graphic novel.
To say that these girls are not the best at soccer is a huge understatement. The MC, Faith, doesn't even know the rules but couldn't say no to the popular older girl doing the recruiting. Their goalie is afraid of the ball, but rocks out in the music room. These girls are all a big huge mess, but, by the end of it their a huge mess together, bonding and having fun in ways that don't involve soccer.
While I did like the great amount of diversity represented in this book, the story, and the look into the lives of each of the girls, there's some things that I felt distracted from the story or made it hard to keep up. One page is entirely in Spanish that my high school and college Spanish classes combined were useless with no translation within. (Great for native Spanish speakers, though, due to the rarity, and comics/graphic novels are a wonderful way for learning English as a second language). I wished that the Latina, Spanish speaking character in question, V, was able to stay through the whole story, because--especially with her one spotlight page being entirely in Spanish--I felt like I didn't get to know her at all.
Nadia, a hijab wearing girl, was also awesome but bringing her in halfway through the story seemed more like checking off a list and also lost a lot of time to develop her character for the audience, not to mention even less time to form a real bond with the rest of the team.
Also, the story within the story--Faith's dream/art world--was okay and did serve a purpose, but, again, felt like it distracted from the main story and hindered getting to know the characters better.
A last thing to mention is that finding books with girls in sports is hard to come by, especially books that focus on girls playing sports and not as an aside 'Oh, she does gymnastics/ballet/cheer/softball/track/soccer/etc.' thing. None of these girls--except Nadia--really, actually cared about the game or actively wanted to improve. As a girl who played soccer from kindergarten through senior year of high school, I would have loved a graphic novel about a bunch of soccer playing and loving girls when I was in middle school because they were so hard to come by. So as a grown woman I appreciate the diversity, the friendships, the strong female characters in this story... but would have appreciated a little more love for the Beautiful Game from the characters.
In short, this is a good story with good lessons and cute art and a wonderful array of female characters, and I know a lot of late-elementary/early middle school girls will love this graphic novel.
aliena_jackson's review against another edition
3.0
This book needed to be much, much longer. A lot of the characters didn't have a storyline, and they weren't fleshed out well enough. I forgot their names most of the time, except for Faith, of course, who I wish I had been in the fifth grade. All of the characters seemed to love in a utopia where you're just magically accepted for being LGBT identifying with no backlash and people disappear with no real explanation. Nonetheless, congrats to this book for having rep and for the awesome drawings. I might just pick this up again in the future.
wondering_wildflower's review
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
christiana's review against another edition
3.0
The hype got ahead of this one for me. There's some good stuff here, but when you say "read this if you loved Smile!" you're going to be disappointed (and a little more like Drama than Smile, IMHO).
bickie's review against another edition
I found this book a little hard to follow, which was probably similar to Faith's feeling at her new middle school. When she signs up for the soccer team, she doesn't realize it's on the 3rds (C) team. Most of the players there don't really care about soccer, and neither does the coach, who is one of the players' (Huang) dad. Some of the kids have nicknames, both self-selected (Sodacan) and assigned (Bulldog and Warthog). Faith realizes that a lot of people are mean to each other, and most of the time just stays silent but does speak up a few times. One pair of friends has a rift when one tells the other she likes a boy (who is one of the player's older brother), then the other decides to "hit on" him instead.
Some readers might find the interspersed storylines confusing. A few show some of the teammates at their homes once; another recurring storyline is one that Faith draws herself in her notebook about a girl (her) and a knight-looking person named Mathilda who is a messenger between kinds and queens.
Some readers might find the interspersed storylines confusing. A few show some of the teammates at their homes once; another recurring storyline is one that Faith draws herself in her notebook about a girl (her) and a knight-looking person named Mathilda who is a messenger between kinds and queens.
Spoiler
There is one scene where one of the teammates (Marie) is having a sleepover with another (Sammy) and sharing a bed. Sammy (on the girls' soccer team) discloses that he "thinks I'm a boy." Marie has had a crush on Sammy and, while surprised at first, is completely affirming. The scene ends with a consensual kiss in the bed.samgray's review against another edition
4.0
Love that this story worked to break the stereotypical "happy ending" but was also able to end on a hopeful note. These kids don't magically become a superpower team, but they do become better teammates and friends. I love the lack of absolutes or cheap "lessons learned" trope in middle grade stories. The Breakaways is messy, but isn't Middle School like that?
This would be a perfect book to start a discussion about a myriad of topics relevant to middle schoolers today.
This would be a perfect book to start a discussion about a myriad of topics relevant to middle schoolers today.