Just finished reading "Sugar and Ice: A Figure Skating Novel" (Kate Messner, author) It would be really nice for pre-teens to read.
It's about a girl who is picked for a figure skating training program in Lake Placid and how she goes from being a talented pond skater (and junior coach at the local rink!) to competing at Nationals.
The imagery of Lake Placid was dead-on; I could feel myself walking near the Oval.
I liked the "dream come true" part of the story because it's wasn't perfect and smooth, a lot of mixed emotions were involved, which is (in my mind) justifiable. Skaters give up a lot of their childhood to make time for training and competitions. I do think that, if the skater were from another walk of life, there's no way the frequent schedule changes and additions would have been tolerated by the family.
I wasn't thrilled with the ending, which I dont' want to give away. I think that, while some skaters would choose that path, it was just a little too "happily ever after" and sketchy on the details. (From someone who loves "and they lived..." endings, I was surprised to be disappointed.)
Little bit of mean girl and relationship stuff, a bit of "whodunit," which sort of surprised me. The coaches were all one-dimensional, but that's probably how kids see their coaches, so it was acceptable.
The author glossed over the final solution, making it seem easy-peasy. Not terribly realistic, but if more details had been revealed, it would have been fine. (It just seemed too pat, almost a cop-out solution.)
Still, it's a accurate take on figure skating in the US, unlike Disney's Ice Princess where she could do a Basic Skills show and end up passing her Novice Free, lol. (I initially thought this novel was going to mimic that "science of skating" story arc, but it didn't.) As a parent, I liked the emphasis on school and juggling assignments.
Topic: Sugar and Ice: A Figure Skating Novel (Read 1480 times)