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A review by tabithapagie
Why We Fly by Gilly Segal, Kimberly Jones
4.0
3.5 stars!
As someone who enjoyed Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal's previous collaboration, I'm Not Dying With You Tonight, I was interested in picking up Why We Fly and see what they brought to the table this time! This story is inspired by the actions and protests by NFL star Colin Kapernick, and subsequent protests happening with other teams across the US.
Chanel and Eleanor (Leni) are best friends, who are starting their senior year, excited to hopefully lead their cheerleading team to a Nationals win. Their team decides to kneel during the National Anthem at their football game, being inspired by an alumni of their high school's protest in the NFL league. With the repercussions of this action, Leni and Chanel, already drifting apart, seem to split onto their own paths for most of the novel.
What I think was done really well in this book was making it easy to get into for a teenage audience, I see this as a great hit among high schoolers who might not be a 'bookworm', and I can definitely see this being a choice for a book discussion in classrooms, which would spark engaging debates and raise good discussion questions among this age group.
I do wish we got more of the main conflict of the story. I felt like near the end the important subject matter was dropped, and I wanted to read so much more and see more action regarding this!
I liked the ending and how it wasn't 'perfect'. It felt real, as most things (as someone who graduated high school in the past few years), don't wrap up like they do in stories, and most people leave things left unsaid.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and SourceBooks for allowing me an eARC of this book, I really appreciate it!
As someone who enjoyed Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal's previous collaboration, I'm Not Dying With You Tonight, I was interested in picking up Why We Fly and see what they brought to the table this time! This story is inspired by the actions and protests by NFL star Colin Kapernick, and subsequent protests happening with other teams across the US.
Chanel and Eleanor (Leni) are best friends, who are starting their senior year, excited to hopefully lead their cheerleading team to a Nationals win. Their team decides to kneel during the National Anthem at their football game, being inspired by an alumni of their high school's protest in the NFL league. With the repercussions of this action, Leni and Chanel, already drifting apart, seem to split onto their own paths for most of the novel.
What I think was done really well in this book was making it easy to get into for a teenage audience, I see this as a great hit among high schoolers who might not be a 'bookworm', and I can definitely see this being a choice for a book discussion in classrooms, which would spark engaging debates and raise good discussion questions among this age group.
I do wish we got more of the main conflict of the story. I felt like near the end the important subject matter was dropped, and I wanted to read so much more and see more action regarding this!
I liked the ending and how it wasn't 'perfect'. It felt real, as most things (as someone who graduated high school in the past few years), don't wrap up like they do in stories, and most people leave things left unsaid.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and SourceBooks for allowing me an eARC of this book, I really appreciate it!