Author: Erin Falligant
Illustrator: Vivienne To
Published: 2024
Summary
Lila Monetti is a gymnast growing up in St. Paul, MN. She loves gymnastics, and is aspiring to make the top-level Gold team at her gym. Even better, her best friend Katie is joining the gym! Lila is thrilled when Coach McKenna (yes, it's that McKenna; she's in Minnesota for college) announces a mock meet to try out for the Gold team. But when she and Katie are visiting their favorite horse at a nearby stable, a sound spooks the animal and it steps on Lila's toe, bruising it badly. She still tries to push forward with gymnastics, and injures it more. Now she'll have to sit out a week of practice, and the mock meet is less than a month away. But she practices as she's able, and when the mock meet rolls around, she performs better than she ever has, and makes the Gold team!
Lila's thrilled, and excited for the new challenges that lie ahead. But Katie, who had been on the verge of terrified the whole time, turns out to like neither competition nor the spotlight. And while the two best friends work together to try to keep Coach McKenna from being homesick, they're starting to have less and less in common. Is their friendship in trouble as well as their coach?
Maybe, especially after Coach McKenna has to rush back to Seattle for a family emergency, leaving the assistant coach in charge. Some of Lila's teammates don't have much faith in her, and Katie's stress leads to her fighting with another teammate. By the time Halloween rolls around, Lila and Katie are barely speaking. They had planned to go trick-or-treating together as a horse, but Lila ends up dressing as a cat to take her younger brother out, and sees Katie with another friend, the two dressed in matching witch costumes.
After a heart-to-heart with her mom about friendships growing and evolving and drifting and coming back together, Lila invites Katie to go with her to the farm to watch some baby goats (which are established earlier as very important to Katie). As they patch things up, they're inspired to help the gymnastics team start working together as a team again. When the big meet happens later in the month, the team is back to its old self, and several of them, including Lila and Katie, earn medals for their efforts.
Misc
The author dedicates her book to "Heidi Belz, the goat whisperer, and Sarah and her coaching crew at Madtown Twisters."
Halloween takes place on a Thursday, as it will in 2024.
Lila's mother is a nurse at a children's hospital, and works long hours.
McKenna attends the University of Minnesota. A mock interview at the end of the book confirms that she is indeed the 2012 Girl of the Year. I was a little annoyed when I saw the book that there was yet another gymnast during an Olympics year (why not track and field or another sport?) but when the book states that college-age Coach McKenna is from Seattle, it made sense.
The last few pages of the book have tips on creating strong teams and being effect leaders.
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