Pinned

Autumn struggles in school but does a great job on her middle school wrestling team. She has an enormous crush on Adonis, who is very academically gifted, the manager of the wrestling team, and in a wheel chair because of a birth defect that resulted in his lack of legs. Autumn's biggest academic struggle is her poor reading skills, which result in her dislike of reading of any kind. She makes some attempts at improving, mainly so that she can stay on the wrestling team and impress Adonis, who finds her very annoying... at first. Autumn volunteers in the school library to be near him, and he comes to find her rather attractive, especially when another boy, Roberto, also likes her. Autumn does get put off the team and makes more attempts to improve herself.

I will buy this for my school library because it has a nice mix of romance and academic struggles, and there's not a lot of that in middle grade literature. I do wish the picture on the cover weren't of such a very thin girl. Look at her arms! Twigs! And she wrestles?

I am greedy for books by Sharon G. Flake. The Skin I'm In is one of the books I recommend most, and also one of the books that most regularly "disappears" from my collection. I consider this the highest compliment to an author--that a book speaks so much to a reader that they need to keep it forever. I need to set aside some of my budget for purchasing extra copies of Pinned because I know my students will want to read this one again and again.

Autumn and Adonis both have admirable strengths: she is the only female wrestler on the school's team and on her way to being the best in the state, he is brilliant and destined for success. Unfortunately, they are also both held back by something which haunts them. Autumn's reading difficulties have followed her through life and now threaten her wrestling career. Adonis, born without legs, keeps his distance from his classmates as he tries to forget how they exposed his helpless side. Lucky for both of them, Autumn is in love with Adonis and could be persistent enough to move both of them forward together.

Autumn is an incredible character, full of complexities and realistic details. Flake takes care to note that even though she has academic shortcomings, Autumn will have success in the future, particularly as a baker and businesswoman. It is a gift to the reader to see Adonis through Autumn's eyes: "I wonder about his brain more than about his legs: how a boy can be so smart, holding things in his head the way sugar holds sweet, making people think they know him when they don't...I want my kids to be born that way. Smarter than everyone else." Although Flake is careful to explain the vulnerability behind his attitude, Adonis can be off-putting and Autumn's adoration goes a long way to temper that.

Flake shines when writing in the voice of African-American adolescents and teachers. She captures the nuances of speech and the heart behind her characters' actions, and makes me want to read her work over and over again. Buy several copies for your library, you'll need them.