Double Dutch, by Sharon Draper

Novels about sports are always a bit iffy--either you have the right ratio of sports descriptions to other significant plot advancements, or the sports details overtake the rest of the book, which doesn't seem too meaningful. This book tries to avoid having too much emphasis on the double dutch aspect so as to move the plot along, but in doing so, it doesn't necessarily have a quality narrative apart from the sporting component.

This novel tells the story of 8th grader Delia, an African American girl on a double dutch team. Double dutch is her passion, which I really liked, because I think it's good to demonstrate to students that you can have passions that are different from your peers. Double dutch is a skill/hobby that is not often presented in young adult sport novels--it's usually either basketball, running, etc. But double dutch is a more quirky sport, which made those parts of the novel compelling.

The other layer of Delia, though, pertains to her inability to read--a secret which she has kept from her teachers, parents, coach, and teammates. This renders her frustrated and embarrassed in school on a regular basis, yet she can't really do anything about it until she decides to tell her parents. My question about this, though, was how realistic is it to have a 14 year old girl whose parents haven't noticed that their daughter can't read? Really? In the scene where Delia reveals to her mother that she can't read, they go out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant, and Delia cannot read the menu, which frustrates her so much that she cries. Then she tells her mother the truth, at which point her mom obviously arranges to help Delia overcome this by working with her teachers, and getting her reading tutoring.

There is a subplot pertaining to Delia's friend Randy, who hasn't seen his dad in several weeks. This storyline is resolved by a tornado, which hits the town where Delia and Randy live, and brings everyone in the school, including two major school bullies, together. There is also a culminating double dutch competition. It ends how you would expect it to. Delia can read. Randy's dad also shows up at the tournament.

The book was okay; not great. The language is a bit juvenile, and the fact that Delia's parents didn't know she couldn't read was a little unrealistic and annoying. I'd say 6th graders through 8th graders could read it.