Maxine wants to be an Olympic figure skater, but for now she is a middle schooler who works hard and dreams. When a boy from her class starts harassing her & a new skater moves to town right before sectionals, it seems the deck is stacked against her. ( )

Asian-Americans have long been a part of figure skating, especially women, but 12-year old Maxine Chen seems to be the only Asian in Lake Placid, NY, where her family has relocated to get her the best possible coaching/training. However, it is not easy for her, with a demanding schedule, strict coaches and high parental expectations, in the face of regional and sectional competitions. Maxine is also being subject to racist bullying by a boy in school, who has hijacked her longtime friend. E.L. Chen has written a thoughtful book about dealing with these pressures, and then along comes Hollie another (better) skater, who turns out to be as lonely as Maxine and they form a bond. Good story, good characters, and kudos to the illustrator for the wonderful skating images at the beginning of every chapter. My only complaint was insufficient explanations about the various figure skating moves, which should have been included in an appendix. ( )

Figure skating fans will enjoy Maxine's journey as an intermediate skater who also happens to be of Asian descent. The typical challenges of being a competitive skater are depicted--early hours of practice, technical struggles, self-doubt--but Maxine is also negatively impacted by the racist comments of a classmate. She realizes the strengths she brings to skating can help her deal with the racism. Loved that Maxine name-drops many of the iconic Asian figure skaters as her heroes. ( )

Like many young figure skaters, twelve-year-old Maxine dreams of competing in the Olympics one day. In the meantime, she's got an important intermediate competition to prepare for, but keeping up in middle school at the same time is hard—especially when a bully there has been teasing Maxine about her Chinese heritage in The Comeback by author E. L. Shen.

Gee, this middle grade novel gave me flashbacks of reading The Little Gymnast by Sheila Haigh (one of my childhood favorites!) and The Sisters Impossible by J.D. Landis back in the day. The stories are all quite different, but reading about Maxine reminded me of just how serious training, competing, and performing are for young artists and athletes who pursue their passion as more than a hobby. It's basically a career.

This author has a great knack for imagery, the illustrations by Dung Ho are beautiful (for starters, just look at that book cover!), and I loved the story's inclusion of the names of figuring skating legends whose work I've enjoyed over the years.

Now, even with its magical cover, this wasn't a magical read for me. I don't think the reference to all the white girls at Maxine's school as "pasty" is any less insulting than it would be to refer to brown girls as "crispy." And while Maxine's inner sarcasm was sometimes mildly humorous to me, her thoughts are also rather mean at times, and her attitude is pretty disrespectful to her parents in a few scenes. Hence, I didn't really like the heroine for maybe half the book or so.

Nonetheless, I warmed up to her as she began to do some growing through the story, and the book's messages on racism and healthy competition have compelling development.

By the end of the novel, I was cheering. Literally. ( )