Basketballer Lori is now in sixth grade but still mostly playing in the fifth quarter, when the bench-bound teammates go in during breaks. The good news: a new rec team is starting up and Lori wants in. The bad news: her mom, Rachel, has volunteered to coach, carrying memories of her own hardcore soccer days, and Lori winds up playing against all her school chums. Volume one truly stood out for Dawson's ability to balance Lori's anxieties and emotional baggage with that of her parents, and he does a wonderful job once again, making all his main characters feel alive and relatable. This extends to visual details distinguishing each of his figures' faces and expressions, as well as his absolutely thrilling basketball scenes, where he brings the emotional nuances of life onto the court. It's all on display in a showdown with the team of Rachel's old nemesis, town councilman Anthony, when Lori finally has the chance to stoke her inner fire and put the blaze to use. Includes a comics primer on Title IX.

Competitive action aplenty drives the continuation of Dawson's celebration of hard work, teamwork, and the joy of winning to a triumphant close.Switching back and forth using flashbacks keyed to a change of palette, the author twines two storylines-one featuring Lori Block, who is now a sixth grader sharpening her b-ball skills on both a travel team and rec league squads, and the other looking back at her mom at roughly the same age riding roughshod over both opponents and teammates on the soccer pitch. Along with dishing out mixes of precisely drawn technical pointers and fast break action in the tight but easily legible panels, the author fills the interludes between practices and games with stressful family changes for both girls. He also gives both such identically fierce, intense expressions when they're playing that it may come as a surprise to readers to see Lori and opponent Elyse exchanging grins after a hard-fought game or her mom and stepaunt Miriam laughing at a Passover seder over their once-fraught experiences as teammates and stepsisters. The reminder that amateur sports should be, above all else, fun is well taken. Also salutary is the appended graphic salute to Title IX's half-century of impact. Lori and her family are White; the supporting cast of teachers, coaches, young players, and other students is portrayed with a mix of light and dark skin.Buoyant and breathless, scoring on several levels. (Graphic fiction. 10-13)