Boost (review)

Savvy’s family has hit a financial speed bump, and August finds them living temporarily on her great-aunt’s Rhode Island sheep farm. The reduced circumstances are trying, and Aunt Betty’s injury and slow convalescence make things a bit worse, but Savvy and her sister Callie should be just fine: Savvy, heading into eighth grade at six foot two, has made the under-eighteen basketball travel team, and junior Callie expects to be a flier again on her new cheerleading squad. Both girls need some work to excel with their teammates; Savvy goes with farm work and a rigorous training schedule to gain muscle and agility for the coming season, while Callie heads to the gym to trim down and buff up after a nervous eating binge. All Savvy’s effort is jeopardized, though, when a teammate finds steroids in Savvy’s locker, and the young rising star must face police questioning, prove she’s clean, and discover who planted the drugs and why. There’s a dose of unsubtle health-class message here, and readers will be quicker than Savvy to connect the dots between her older sister’s weight loss, hair plucking, and zit eruption and the juice. Mackel packages her cautionary tale with authentic sororal rivalry and family pressure, though, and her focus on Savvy’s perspective makes clear how wide-ranging the consequences of Callie’s dismal choices have been. A chick-lit patina makes this title seem less intense than Carl Deuker’s Gym Candy (BCCB 9/07), but it handily makes its case that boosting isn’t reserved for guys.