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A review by finesilkflower
Abby the Bad Sport by Ann M. Martin
2.0
Abby joins a Special Olympics Unified soccer team, in which intellectually disabled athletes and non-disabled "partners" play together on the same team. It’s coached by Kristy’s old hardass softball coach (74), Coach Wu, who earns Abby’s wrath when she places on her defense instead of center forward. The center forward position goes to talented athlete Erin. Abby hates playing defense and looks forward opportunities to run off and score, leaving her side of the field unguarded. She and Erin ignore chances to pass to each other, and get into a physical fight after Abby angrily calls Erin stupid. The coach benches them. From the bench, Abby starts observing ways the defense could improve--her practice training kicking in--and she realizes that the coach is right that her experience in offense can help her in defense. She works hard in practice and plays good defense when the coach lets her in a game. She admits to Erin that she is an equally skilled player.
There are two subplots. One is a baby-sitting runner where the other baby-sitters get neighborhood kids excited about the team and form a Booster Club to help raise funds for new jerseys. (They also attend games, allowing the main plot to continue throughout the baby-sitting chapters.) The other involves Abby’s feelings about her father’s death. She begs out of visiting her father’s grave on Long Island with her mother and sister, saying she has a game (she does, but she doesn’t tell them she’s benched). Later, she dreams about her father and wishes she’d gone. The book ends with her planning to visit the grave and leave her lucky cleats as a tribute.
I don’t think I would have much liked this one as a kid--I never loved sports stories. But the soccer talk was feelingsy enough that I found it engaging enough as an adult. Abby acts like a real jerk throughout, but it’s motivated by her established competitiveness, and I can certainly imagine being upset if I cared about the success of my team but felt like I was being misused within it.
Overall, the fact that the team is a Special Olympics Unified team and that Erin has an intellectual disability is largely irrelevant. I kind of like this. From a storytelling perspective, it’s an unnecessary bit of complication, but of all the BSC PSA books about diversity and special programs and so forth, this is the least pamphlety and therefore the most effective at making us truly believe that the othered group really is normal and just-like-the-rest-of-us. After all, the same plot could have easily played out in any team. Abby would arguably have been angry at anyone who "took" her position. That Abby doesn’t tiptoe around Erin and treat her like a child ("Good job!") suggests she takes her seriously as a threat.
On the other hand, the argument could be made that Abby’s prejudgment that Erin can’t possibly be as good as she is at sports is informed by her knowledge that she’s one of the "athletes" and not one of the "partners", and that her own role on the team is to be the awesome Normal Hero who would lead these poor freaks, Avatar-style, to victory. In that case, Abby is a terrible human being.
What really bugged me was the lack of connection between the soccer plot and the dad plot. There was really no reason for them to be together. Actually, there was no real reason for the dad plot at all. I know dealing with grief is a lifelong process, and all, but didn’t we process a lot of dad issues in the first Abby book? Why is Abby especially upset about it now? And why and how does it get resolved when it does? A dream is a weak catalyst for resolution.
Sign of the Times: Undoubtedly in keeping with the Special Olympics terminology at the time, Erin and the other Special Ed teammates are described as having "mental retardation."
Timing: Mid-summer
Revised Timeline: Summer after college graduation. The Special Olympics are for all ages, so in theory we don’t have to alter the program. Actually, it makes a lot of sense as something Abby would get involved in after graduation. In college, she probably played on school teams. Now she works a 9-5 job and misses the organized programs of school, especially sports. In looking around for a team which accepted adults players, she discovered the Special Olympics program and decided it seemed much cooler than a random adult weekend league.
There are two subplots. One is a baby-sitting runner where the other baby-sitters get neighborhood kids excited about the team and form a Booster Club to help raise funds for new jerseys. (They also attend games, allowing the main plot to continue throughout the baby-sitting chapters.) The other involves Abby’s feelings about her father’s death. She begs out of visiting her father’s grave on Long Island with her mother and sister, saying she has a game (she does, but she doesn’t tell them she’s benched). Later, she dreams about her father and wishes she’d gone. The book ends with her planning to visit the grave and leave her lucky cleats as a tribute.
I don’t think I would have much liked this one as a kid--I never loved sports stories. But the soccer talk was feelingsy enough that I found it engaging enough as an adult. Abby acts like a real jerk throughout, but it’s motivated by her established competitiveness, and I can certainly imagine being upset if I cared about the success of my team but felt like I was being misused within it.
Overall, the fact that the team is a Special Olympics Unified team and that Erin has an intellectual disability is largely irrelevant. I kind of like this. From a storytelling perspective, it’s an unnecessary bit of complication, but of all the BSC PSA books about diversity and special programs and so forth, this is the least pamphlety and therefore the most effective at making us truly believe that the othered group really is normal and just-like-the-rest-of-us. After all, the same plot could have easily played out in any team. Abby would arguably have been angry at anyone who "took" her position. That Abby doesn’t tiptoe around Erin and treat her like a child ("Good job!") suggests she takes her seriously as a threat.
On the other hand, the argument could be made that Abby’s prejudgment that Erin can’t possibly be as good as she is at sports is informed by her knowledge that she’s one of the "athletes" and not one of the "partners", and that her own role on the team is to be the awesome Normal Hero who would lead these poor freaks, Avatar-style, to victory. In that case, Abby is a terrible human being.
What really bugged me was the lack of connection between the soccer plot and the dad plot. There was really no reason for them to be together. Actually, there was no real reason for the dad plot at all. I know dealing with grief is a lifelong process, and all, but didn’t we process a lot of dad issues in the first Abby book? Why is Abby especially upset about it now? And why and how does it get resolved when it does? A dream is a weak catalyst for resolution.
Sign of the Times: Undoubtedly in keeping with the Special Olympics terminology at the time, Erin and the other Special Ed teammates are described as having "mental retardation."
Timing: Mid-summer
Revised Timeline: Summer after college graduation. The Special Olympics are for all ages, so in theory we don’t have to alter the program. Actually, it makes a lot of sense as something Abby would get involved in after graduation. In college, she probably played on school teams. Now she works a 9-5 job and misses the organized programs of school, especially sports. In looking around for a team which accepted adults players, she discovered the Special Olympics program and decided it seemed much cooler than a random adult weekend league.