Skip to main content

Up For Air Review

Up for AirTitle: Up for Air
Author: Laurie Morrison
Genre: Young Adult, Middle School, Contemporary
Trigger Warning: 
Rating:  5 stars
Release Date: May 7, 2019

Synopsis

Thirteen-year-old Annabelle struggles in school, no matter how hard she tries. But as soon as she dives into the pool, she’s unstoppable. She’s the fastest girl on the middle school swim team, and when she’s asked to join the high school team over the summer, everything changes. Suddenly, she’s got new friends, and a high school boy starts treating her like she’s somebody special—and Annabelle thinks she’ll finally stand out in a good way. She’ll do anything to fit in and help the team make it to the Labor Day Invitational, even if it means blowing off her old friends. But after a prank goes wrong, Annabelle is abandoned by the older boy and can’t swim. Who is she without the one thing she’s good at? Heartwarming and relatable, Up for Air is a story about where we find our self-worth.

Review

A special thank you to Netgalley and AMULET Books (ABRAMS Kids) for providing a free advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is an incredible example of what middle school fiction should be like, aimed at middle school readers where most fiction is too old or too young for this age group. Annabelle is an imperfect and relatable character. All of her issues do not just suddenly go away but her behaviors and responses do without changing the essence of her character. Annabelle has many strengths and weaknesses. While she struggles throughout multiple points in the novel, she reacts realistically for a person of her age. I became invested in Annabelle and her choices, both good and bad and I understood why she makes the choices she does.

Her interactions with the other characters were amazing as well, especially concerning the age differences and her family situation. The awkward moments between a friend and being too young were really well portrayed and amazing to read. Annabelle's family was fascinating as well, especially in response to the choices that Annabelle makes as a girl who just finished seventh grade joining a high school team and having to interact with them as peers.

The setting was really cool, and by the end of the book, I felt like I knew the island extremely well. Not only did I feel comfortable with the physical characteristics of the place, but also how the culture of the year rounders on the island differed from those who were just visiting. I felt like these nuances of the culture were really well portrayed without becoming too repetitive or just stating facts. The setting is understand through the eyes of Annabelle and her particular circumstances and how those interact.

Overall, this book is absolutely amazing and a perfect example of what all middle school fiction on the younger side of young adult should look like in contemporary. Most middle school aged characters play down to younger readers, but Annabelle faces realistic problems for a middle schooler and is best suited for that age group than many books are. I adored this book and definitely would recommend others giving it a try.


What are your favorite young adult reads aimed at those middle school aged readers? Be sure to let me know your recommendations in the comments.

Thanks for reading!
Alyssa
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Unique Settings

Last week, I ran out of time to do my Top Ten Tuesday post, but I still loved the prompt of settings that I'd like to see more of. Since this week was a freebie, I decided to go ahead and do this prompt. Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. The books I have read from these books have been absolutely amazing in the majority of circumstances, but there needs to be so much more, especially in traditional publishing for a wide range of audiences, though some of these are best suited to YA or NA. So, let's get started! 4H- I spent twelve years as a member of local 4H, and I have only read one book that ever had showing livestock at a county fair as a plotline. It was amazing, but I haven't seen this aspect of my life in any other book. I have a few ideas based on my experiences
16 comments
Read more

August Six Degrees

I recently discovered the Six Degrees of Separation meme for book blogs, and it looks like a lot of fun, so I decided to start this month, and see how it goes! This month's prompt is a wild card. Since I didn't do this last month, I'm starting with the book that I'm currently in the middle of- The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. First Link: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan These books are both by the same author, but also they are both the books that got me into that specific type of mythology in the first place, both Greek and Egyptian. I've learned so much after becoming interested based on these books in the first place. Second Link: Pandora Gets Jealous by Carolyn Hennesy Both of these books are takes on Greek mythology. Percy Jackson is modern day, but Pandora is set back then. Still, the main characters are both awesome and their interactions with the Greek gods and other Greek mythical beings are just amazing. Third Link: The Frog Princess
12 comments
Read more

Anticipated Releases

Welcome back to another week of Top Ten Tuesday! Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by  That Artsy Reader Girl with prompts every week! This one was surprisingly hard for me, maybe because I'm not really in the middle of any great series right now and all of the authors I read a lot aren't releasing this fall. I did include multiple books that I already got from Netgalley but they have not yet come out and I am behind but I still want to read them because I'm excited about their potential and hope that they are as amazing as I wish. So let's get started! Of Ice and Shadows by Audrey Coulthurst- Mare and Denna are an amazing sapp hic couple. I loved Of Ice and Shadows, and I absolutely cannot wait to read the sequel, but I have to. I am really excited for this book. Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan- I got my sister the first book for Christmas and still haven't read it, but this is another amazing sapphic series that I need to read. My sister loved
26 comments
Read more