Book Review: Roller Girl

I’ll admit this first, before going into my review… I’m not a huge fan of graphic novels.  I love the idea of graphic novels and I’m a huge supporter of providing graphic novels to kids and their great benefits, but they are not my favorite genre.  I’m pretty sure my problem is that I’m a fairly quick reader and the pictures just get in my way and I don’t take the time to stop and look at the pictures as much as I should.  So it may just be something I have to work on.
But, I picked up Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson because I’ve heard so much about it and it happened to be sitting on the shelf as I walked past the other day.  I am absolutely loving it!  I’ve got about 50 more pages to go and I’m having trouble sitting at work, not being able to finish it!
Jamieson does a great job creating a character true to tweens everywhere – Astrid is 12 years old, fighting with her best friend, fascinated in trying roller derby and keeping something from her mom.  Her thoughts, worries, day-to-day activities scream 12 year old to me and it’s been an exciting book as she comes of age – making the difficult decisions about friendship, apologies, and more.
This book will definitely be going on my “suggested reading” list for tween girls looking for a coming-of-age story with a girl that makes mistakes but is still brave and strong in the end.
Twitter Book Synopsis (140 characters or less!): “12 year old Astrid has trouble with friends, but learns the power of hard work, determination and being brave while at roller derby camp.”
Title: Roller Girl
Author: Victoria Jamieson
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 2015
Page Number: 240 pgs.