Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Game Changer by Margaret Peterson Haddix

First off, sorry for the sparodic posts recently. I recently started do rehearsals for a play I'm in and my schedule has become crazy because of it. Now, I give you the review. I would like to start by saying that usually I adore Haddix's books. However, although Game Changer wasn't bad, it definitely wasn't her best. Game Changer is told through the eyes of 8th grader KT Sutton, softball champion and the apple of her parents' eyes. Then  suddenly in the middle of a champion softball game, she is transported to a different world where sports are school and vise versa. So KT suddenly becomes a nerd who is lousy and Acs, the academic competitions replace sports in the crazy world. To top it all off, KT's brother, who used to be nearly ignored by her parents, is fantastic at Acs, so now, she's the 'unimportant' child. The plot does thicken a little bit more, however, I won't tell you anymore for the sake of suspense. Anyway, I didn't particularly love Game Changer. For starters, in order to create drama, Haddix exaggerated the role sports play in the lives of middle schoolers. She made it seem if you were good at sports everyone loved you. You were popular with both your teachers and fellow students if you were good at any sport. However, woe to the smart kid, anyone who was smart pretended not to be if they cared about popularity. Also, the book failed to keep me on the edge of my seat like most Haddix books. In fact, I didn't really even care much about what happened to KT, nor was I totally shocked by the ending of the book. So, because of those reasons, I cannot recommended Game Changer for most people. However very sporty girls ages 9-12 might enjoy this.  Otherwise, skip it and read a different Haddix book, believe me almost all of her other book are much better. If you did like Game Changer, check out Above World by Jenn Reese. Happy Reading, Little New Yorker!