Marvelous Middle Grade Monday: Keeping Pace, by Laurie Morrison

Participating in the Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop,  hosted by Greg Pattrige of Always in the Middle, with loads of reviews of Middle Grade fiction (books for roughly ages 8-12).  I'm grateful to the hop for giving me a renewed interest in MG fiction.

 Title: Keeping Pace

Author: Laurie Morrison

Publication info: Kindle edition, 2024, Amulet Books. 207 pages.

Source: Library

Publisher's Blurb:
Grace Eller has spent most of middle school working toward one goal: beating her former friend Jonah Perkins’s GPA so she can be the best student in her class. But when Jonah beats her for eighth grade top scholar and then announces he’s switching schools for ninth grade, it feels like none of Grace’s academic accomplishments have really mattered. They weren’t enough to win—or to impress her dad. And the summer looms over her head. With nothing planned and no more goals or checklists, she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to be working toward.
 
Eager for a chance to even the score with Jonah, she signs up for the Labor Day half-marathon that she and Jonah used to talk about running together someday. Maybe if she can beat Jonah on race day, she’ll feel OK again. But as she begins training with Jonah and checking off a new list of summer goals, she starts to expand her ideas of what—and who—really matters.
 
Engaging and heartfelt, Keeping Pace is about wanting to win at all costs—and having to learn how to fail.

My Review:
I think I may have seen this book on another MMGM poster's blog, but don't really recall. I know that I chose to read it because I used to be a runner (sigh) and my husband loved to run. So it's probably the one sort of sports-related book I can relate to.

And yes, I can also relate to Grace, with her focus on achievement (thank goodness I never went as far overboard as she does) and her social awkwardness. I thought the author did a great job of letting Grace gradually discover the things that matter, and the ways in which she's sabotaged them. Her set-in-concrete ideas about herself and other people gradually unravel over the summer, until she actually becomes likeable.

I'm a little sorry that the author considered it necessary to introduce a romantic element into the story. Though I realize that boy-girl friendships get tricky at the edge of high school, it doesn't hurt to show that they can be non-romantic friends. To be honest, though, I felt like the kids were younger than the 14ish they'd need to be to be, heading from 8th to 9th grade, and the story might have worked better for me in the end if Morrison had gone ahead and made them younger and let go the teen angst over kissing.

My Recommendation:
Though the age of the kids is a little high for middle grade, the story contains nothing inappropriate for the 9-and-up set. I think most kids making the transition to middle school (for ages 11-14, roughly, for my non-US readers) would relate well to Grace and Jonah. And the depiction of how running can shift from torment to joy (even addiction?) is good, and might inspire some kids to give it a try.

FTC Disclosure: I checked Keeping Pace out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  

 

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2024
 As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated.


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