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Reviewed by:
  • Roll by Darcy Miller
  • Deborah Stevenson
Miller, Darcy Roll. Harper/HarperCollins, 2017 [224p]
Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-06-246122-3 $16.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-06-246130-8 $9.99
Reviewed from galleys         R Gr. 4-6

It's only a few months since Ren (short for Lauren, which is the worst since he's a guy) and his family moved out to his grandma's old house in the country, but already the distance has taken a toll on his long friendship with Aiden. Drawn by what appears to be birds falling out of the sky, the eleven-year-old meets Sutton, a neighbor girl who's preparing her Birmingham Roller pigeons, who somersault as they fly, for competition; he finds helping her a lot more appealing than the long runs he's supposed to be taking to prepare for the cross-country team (and to please his trophy-winning dad). But will his friendship with Sutton drive Aiden further away? It's a refreshing change to see middle-school angst about friendship changes from a boy, and Ren is effectively captured as a kid who's just learning to negotiate intermediate-level social challenges like sharing friends and accepting difference. Miller is particularly good at keeping Ren sympathetic while demonstrating why he wouldn't be everybody's cup of tea (he's a know-it-all and a corrector, but he really does love information for its own sake), and she doesn't villainize Aiden either, who may be more of a jock than Ren realized but is still an okay guy. The pigeons make for an appealing hook to this understanding story about growing pains and owning your own identity.

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