• Age: 9 to 12
• Grade: 4 to 7
• Reading age: 9 to 12

Sixteen-year-old Robin Ellis (aka Robin CookieJars) wants to be the best jammer on her roller-derby team.

Robin hopes that maybe one day play for the Creek City Roller Derby All-Stars like her idol, Annie Mossity. But star junior player April Reid (aka April Powers) always seems to be one lap ahead. Until recently, that is. Robin has noticed that April has been losing a lot of weight, and her game is suffering. This may be Robin's chance to finally grab the MVP title. But her success may come at a very heavy cost.

This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for middle-grade readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read!

Kate Hargreaves is a poet, fiction writer, book designer and roller derby skater. Her first book, Talking Derby: Stories from a Life on Eight Wheels (Black Moss, 2012), is a collection of short prose vignettes inspired by playing women’s flat-track roller derby. Hargreaves’ poetry has been published in literary journals across North America, including Descant, filling Station, The Puritan, Drunken Boat, The Antigonish Review, Canada and Beyond, Carousel, and Rampike, and has also appeared in the anthologies Whisky Sour City (Black Moss, 2012) and Detours (Palimpsest, 2012), and the Windsor Review’s “Best Writers Under 35” issue. Hargreaves was the recipient of a Windsor Endowment for the Arts Emerging Literary Artist award in 2011 and a Governor General’s Gold Medal in Graduate Studies at the University of Windsor in 2012, where she obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English & Creative Writing. Kate grew up in Amherstburg, Ontario, but now lives in Windsor, where she works as a publishing assistant and book designer at Biblioasis. Follow her on Twitter @TalkingDerby and connect with her on Facebook www.facebook.com/TalkingDerby.

Kate Hargreaves' profile page

“This novel inspires the reader to eat well, play hard, and appreciate the sport of roller-derby!”

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"An engaging read. It will be an excellent addition to any collection that serves tweens."

CM: Canadian Review of Materials