I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Makayla's parents send her away for the summer so they can work on their relationship. She is upset because she wants to take her double dutch team to the championships.

I didn't really connect too much with the characters in this book. I understand her parents wanting to work on their marriage but felt they were selfish sending the kids away. I did like that Makayla wanted to work hard at something. It was sort of a mixed bag for me, but I think middle graders will enjoy it.

A fun summer read that will introduce readers to the competitive world of Double Dutch. Kayla is a fish out of water in NC, having grown up in Brooklyn. When her parents are having marital problems, she and her brother are shipped off to stay with her aunt and uncle and cousins. She’s never gotten along with her cousin Sally, but they bond over their shared love of Double Dutch. Rivalry with Sally’s former team is great motivation and distraction and they find themselves in the regional championships before they know it.

A great story with diverse characters. Recommend to middle schoolers.

I read this book because as a girl I spent countless hours playing double dutch with my friends, so the title drew me in. However, this book was about much more than jumping rope. It was about the dynamics of friendships, feeling caught between bickering parents and trying to be the best at something you love. This will make a great addition to middle school classroom library.

In LOVE DOUBLE DUTCH, MaKayla’s summer is upended when her parents decided to send her and her younger brother to stay with her aunt and uncle in North Carolina while her parents work on their issues back home in New York. Angry and miserable to be missing out on the opportunity to take her double Dutch team to the Nationals at Madison Square Gardens (her dream), MaKayla learns that outside of NY, double Dutch is thriving in the south.

I'm torn on how to rate LOVE DOUBLE DUTCH. Things I liked: MaKayla's drive, focus and passion for double Dutch. Her attitude I liked a lot less. Whining sassy tweens/teen isn’t something I enjoy reading about.
It was nice to see/read about a competitive sport that isn't mainstream (at least where I live). I really enjoyed the side characters especially the aunt and uncle. Things I didn’t like: her parents. They really bugged me. While we saw MaKayla grow as the story moved sadly, I don’t feel the same about her parents. In my eyes, they didn’t redeem themselves for me to like them by the end.

Overall, I would still buy and recommend LOVE DOUBLE DUTCH to my students. It’s important to me that they read it and form their own opinions. And hopefully, we can discuss what they liked/didn’t, what they connected to and wished for more of/would have done differently if in MaKayla's situation.

Love Double Dutch!
by Doreen Spicer-Dannelly
Random House Children's
Random House Books for Young Readers
Children's Fiction
Pub Date 03 Apr 2018
I am reviewing a copy of Love Double Dutch through Random House Children's and Netgalley:
Makayla is a Brooklyn Middle Schooler who has her mind on only one thing taking her team to the National Jump off at Madison square garden. But when her Mother tells her she will be going to her aunt's house in North Carolina while her parents try to work out their problems or decide on getting divorced.
Kayla does not feel at home in the South, and she doesn't get along with her stuck up cousin Sally. Kayla looks like her dreams of the Jump off over.
Kayla soon comes to realize her double Dutch dreams may not be shattered, when she learns it's huge in the south. She and Sally only need to find two more kids for a team, and they need to learn a new routine. They also need the confidence to stand up to the Double Dutch Divas who used to be Sally's BFF's. It's time for Kayla to show the southern Belle's some Brooklyn attitude.
I give Love Double Dutch five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!

Love Double Dutch! is a story that shows the power of determination and teamwork! How to turn a not so good situation into a positive one! Kayla's world is turned upside down when she has to leave her home for the summer and miss an opportunity she has been working so hard for! But Kayla soon finds that sometimes good things can come out of difficult situations and that there is a reason for everything that happens in life! Kayla uses double Dutch to cope with the problems and issues in her life and in the end she uses it to bring her family together! I would recommend this book for middle school-age readers as an example of the use of a team sport as a positive outlet.

I only got about half way through this book before the vulgar language stopped me. The main character lives in Brooklyn and loves Double Dutch and is good at it but is exiled to NC for the summer because of her parents marital problems. This character has a very rough and wildly confident view of herself and her abilities (for the most part, she is without an humility). I didn't like this one.

This book sounded like a fun adventure through jumping rope, growing up, and learning about family ties. I got all of that, I just wasn’t impressed with how it was portrayed. Kayla is a tough love, no nonsense, straight out of Brooklyn girl who takes jumping seriously. I could respect her for that, but she came off as a very unlikeable character. Her attitude was way too much, her voice seemed too old for her (I understand that she may have had to grow up quickly in her world, yet her philosophies on life around her were to in depth for a child), and, even though she did grow and becoming understanding and more of a team player, she still remained quite selfish and arrogant.
The writing of this story was all over the place. The characters were voiced much older than their young ages, yet the writing was kept easy and simplistic. There were too many storylines going on (Double Dutch Competition, race discussions, marital issues, brother/sister relationships, love interests, etc) that it all seemed to just get skimmed over. Everything happened too easily for these girls, which made the end result that much more uneventful.
I liked the ideas throughout this book, yet felt that they needed to be broken up into multiple stories or expanded upon and made into a YA novel. The characters needed more depth and made more relatable to readers.

My daughter loved this book. She was so excited the cover displayed some on that looked like her. I look forward to getting more books from this author for my girls.