Senior Allie McLean attends Podium High School, a prestigious Canadian sports academy located worlds away from her family's home, where her parents' recent divorce has left her angry and bitter. With a basketball scholarship from Duke University waiting for her after graduation, she just needs to make it through the season without reinjuring her knee. An unexpected romance with Jonathon, a student on the rowing team, gives Allie some reprieve from loneliness and frustration, but when things start to go sour both on and off the court, Allie finds that she does not have the life skills to cope. Allie's authentic voice and realistic problems will hook readers from the first page. Despite a string of train-wreck choices, she is a sympathetic character with whom readers will identify as harsh life lessons are learned. The action on the court is exciting and raw, but it doesn't detract from Allie's more internal journey. A diverse cast of characters is a welcome bonus in this fast-paced book that emphasizes the importance of self-reliance, friends, and family.

Gr 8 Up-Allie McLean, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, is a senior basketball player at the Podium Sports Academy in Calgary, Canada. Captain of the team, she already has a full scholarship to Duke University. Her parents are divorced, and Allie is increasingly frustrated that her mother spends so much time with a revolving door of boyfriends rather than taking care of her two younger siblings or attending Parent's Weekend at Podium. As a result, the teen immerses herself into school, her new boyfriend Jonathon, and basketball, the one activity in which she feels she has the most control. When her basketball coach asks if she is interested in coaching at a sports camp, she eagerly accepts and anticipates a summer that will not involve her family or going home. Soon, those plans begin to unravel. Allie has a fight with her boyfriend, on whom some of her plans depend, and she experiences a serious knee injury that threatens her basketball career. The protagonist learns an important lesson about who she can really count on during bad times. Schultz Nicholson is a former athlete with an excellent knowledge of basketball and other sports, and that is reflected in the details of on the court play-by-play that she provides. This hi-lo book features a couple of mature situations, but they are subtle and blend in with the story line. The evenly paced plot and familiar high school situations will resonate with readers, especially teen athletes. Anne Jung-Mathews, Plymouth State University, NH