mldavisreads 's review for:

Up for Air by Laurie Morrison

5.0

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Contemporary realistic fiction that straddles the line between middle grade and young adult. Annabelle is a competitive swimmer that lives in an island community near Boston. She has an unspecified learning disability that results in mediocre grades at school despite extra tutoring. So when she gets asked to swim up with the high school team over the summer, it's a boost to her confidence. Annabelle can handle herself in the pool, but has more trouble handling the social interactions outside the pool. When a moment of peer pressure results in an injury that prevents her from swimming Annabelle has to reevaluate her priorities, her friendships, and her summer plans.

This book does a great job of illustrating the dangers of hanging with an older crowd without delving in too deep. Annabelle witnesses others vaping and drinking, she deals with a serial flirt that she mistakes as being genuinely interested, and a teammate is recovering from an eating disorder. But she never gets unwanted physical attention or does any drugs herself, keeping this book appropriate for the middle school audience.