We Are Big Time by Hena Khan, illustrated by Safiya Zerrougui (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 240 pages, grades 3-7). Aliya’s not happy that her family is moving from Tampa to Milwaukee just as she’s about to start high school. Although it’s nice to be close to her grandparents, she misses the Florida weather and her basketball friends. Her new Islamic school has a girls’ basketball team, but they’re not very good. A new coach arrives at the school at the same time Aliya does, and before long the girls are working harder than ever on their conditioning and teamwork. Slowly, huge losses turn into smaller losses, then wins. As the team improves, they start attracting some media attention, which more often than not focuses more on their clothing and religion than on their basketball playing. The girls learn to navigate all kinds of new situations as they slowly build a winning season and make their way to the big end-of-the-year tournament. When the season finally comes to an end, the team and their families have plenty to celebrate. Include’s an author’s note about the real-life team that inspired this book and a behind-the-scenes look at the development of some of the artwork.
This is sure to be a big hit with fans of Raina Telgemeier-inspired graphic novels. The story reminded me a little bit of Hoops, with its team of scrappy underdogs breaking barriers for girls’ sports. Their turnaround from huge losses to wins seemed to happen very quickly, reminding me of the storytelling limitations of graphic novels.
Lion Dancers by Cai Tse (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 304 pages, grades 4-7). Wei is trying to find his place in middle school, but despite academic success, he hasn’t found a place where he feels he belongs. When he literally runs into a teenager wearing a lion dance t-shirt, Wei begs him for a chance to join his team. Wei’s late father was a championship lion dancer, and Wei danced a few years back, but he quit when he had some conflicts with another boy named Hung. Hung is part of the new team as well, and Wei struggles to work with him. When Lunar New Year comes around, the team is booked solid with performances all over the city, and everyone has to pitch in to make things work. When Wei and Hung’s rivalry gets in the way of one of their dances, it threatens everything the team has worked for. Wei has to decide if he’s going to work through his problems to continue with the dance form he loves or once again walk away from it.
I struggled a little at the beginning trying to keep the various characters straight and get up to speed with lion dancing, but once I figured things out, I very much enjoyed learning more about the dance and seeing how all the interpersonal drama played out. After reading this and Lunar New Year Love Story, I am ready to attend my first lion dance performance.