Redwood and Ponytail is a middle grade novel in verse about two girls whose friendship causes them to question many of the norms in their lives. Tam is a tall, confident volleyball player with a strong support network of quirky characters; Kate is a cheerleader—scratch that, she’s the cheerleader, but she’s beginning to wonder if this is quite right for her. Both girls are athletic daughters to single mothers and while Tam has a loving, embarrassing mom, Kate’s mom is constantly pressuring her to conform to strict standards.
Kate and Tam are cute together. And messy together. They banter, link pinkies in the halls, argue when they’re stressed. Tam lashes out; Kate lashes in. It’s easy to see how good they are for each other, but also how the two of them slowly falling for each other disrupts their norms. For a realistic middle grade romance, you can’t do much better.
This isn’t really about one thing. It’s not about romance, even if it is completely sappy sometimes. It’s not about parental pressure, even though Kate constantly faces criticism from the mother who doesn’t want her daughter to be anything but cheer captain. It’s not about honoring your friendships, even though Tam and Kate both practically forget their besties when they grow closer with each other. It’s definitely not about the election for class president, even with both girls in the running. It’s about all and none of that.
The balance sets this book apart. While everything felt consuming to the girls, as an adult reader I understood how the author kept everything within reason. All the themes mentioned above are included and addressed, but nothing centers to make this an “issue” book. (Not that there’s anything wrong with an issue book, if that’s what you want.) Instead, it feels grounded.
I enjoyed this book, even though it’s outside my usual reading range—I’m a speculative reader. Give me parasitic lesbians and space queers fighting alien monsters, please! But I can, on occasion, be swayed by a cute realistic novel about a couple of girls figuring themselves out.
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