I was really excited to be asked by Jolly Fish Press to be part of the Bookstagram tour for this fab new book - thank you!

The blurb…
What's more terrifying than being forced into a coed combat wrestling martial art by your own mother? Sixth grade. Angie Larson hates Jiu-Jitsu. Like many twelve-year-old girls, she fails to find the glamour in a martial art that embraces zero personal space and choking as an end goal. Seriously, people choke her, drip sweat on her face, and even wrap their legs around her neck. It's the worst. Instead, she idolises the seemingly perfect kids at her school who do "normal" activities like dance or soccer. But just when it seems like Angie is about to be accepted by them, her mom enrolls her in a Jiu-Jitsu tournament and begins a relationship with the sweatiest coach on the planet. And to make things more complicated, Angie develops a close friendship with a boy who is definitely not part of the "cool" crowd. Angie must decide who she is while making some painful decisions both on and off the mat. Is she a dance girl, a soccer girl, a nothing girl . . . or a Jiu-Jitsu girl?

The new term at work has been super busy so I have to confess that I haven’t had time to read the whole book, but I’ve really enjoyed what I have read. Angie is a super character that middle-grade readers will easily identify with. It’s great to see a girl taking part in a sport traditionally associated with boys/men; challenging stereotypes and sending a strong message to anyone, boy or girl, doubting whether an activity is actually for them.

I can’t wait to finish the rest!

I went back and forth on this book, liking it and being bored in turn. Ultimately I liked it a lot, although the mother character presents a really significant barrier to enjoyment (seriously, WHY is she making her kid do a violent sport she hates and why is her parenting largely limited to ignoring her kid by reading a book during lessons?!). The rest of the cast of kid characters were pretty great though, as was the coach (despite his sweating issues) and the teachers. Even the bullies had reasonable (if foolish) motivations

At heart, this book is like a lot of novels for middle grade girls - an exploration of popularity and becoming the "right" kind of teen. Jiu-Jitsu aside, Angie's story is a familiar one. Given the chance to reinvent herself, she does everything in her power to ingratiate herself with the popular girls, to become one of their fringe members. So we get the obvious examples of the ways girls can be cruel to each other and the betrayal of your real friends in the name of popularity. It's the Jiu-Jitsu that makes the difference in this book. Yes, Angie hates it. She has valid complaints about being made to practice it. But it is also a vehicle to explore our relationship with our bodies. This is the age where girls become critical of their bodies and of other people. A large portion of this novel is devoted to Angie's increasing awareness of how bodies look. Jiu-Jitsu becomes, then, not only a method of learning to defend herself but also to appreciate what her body is capable of, to celebrate it's power. While the conclusion is entirely expected and there are some painfully embarrassing scenes, it's overall well worth reading.

This book is a perfect read for middle graders, teaching important lessons about confidence, dealing with bullies and finding true friends.

Social developmental stages are all hard in their own way. When we are toddlers, we learn that the world doesn't revolve around us. As young children, we learn to include and get along with other children by finding compromises and showing patience. The years we enter puberty bring a whole lot of new challenges. We thought we'd learned by now how to make friends, and all of a sudden, the rules have changed. Now it's all about status. It's about discovering who we are and what roles we will play later in life. Are we leaders, caretakers, followers etc.? And it's hard when everyone tries to find that out simultaneosly.

Jiu-jitsu Girl follows one of these challenges in an authentic and relatable way. Angie moved to a new town and started at a new school. She's always been the invisible one, but this will change. She will become popular, and who is better to get her that status than the most popular girl in school, Olivia. What could possibly go wrong, right? Well, everything. And it definitely doesn't help that her mom signed her up for Jiu-jitsu which is the worst! Through a series of events, Angie finds out what it feels like to be bullied, but she also makes a lot of mistakes and learns some important life lessons.

I loved how relatable the story was, though the title made it sound like not in a million years would I see myself in this story. I totally did. There is some amazing character development in this book. And a couple of scenes were so comedic I had to laugh out loud. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I recommend it to any tween trying to figure out who they want to be.

Big thanks to the publisher and author for reaching out and inviting me to be a part of this book tour! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book!

I enjoyed learning more about various martial arts but especially the focus on techniques and the role of jiu-Jitsu in Angie’s view of herself! Dutton nailed the awkward and painful to read, at times, experiences of being in middle school. I know my younger self would have deeply related to Angie’s yearn to not only fit in and be liked but to visible to others. Having taught middle schoolers, I think feeling invisible is a feeling a lot of them could’ve related to in Angie. I mean, heck, I know plenty of adults (including myself) have still struggled with feeling that way. I think Dutton did an excellent job navigating Angie’s struggles in middle school paired with her distain for Jiu-Jitsu and how that manifested in other ways in her life.

Overall, I truly think a lot of people would enjoy this book! It’s always fun to read a middle school read and read it as me now and then think about how my middle school self would’ve felt about it too. Angie frustrated me at times because I could see things from a different perspective. But middle school me would’ve been agreeing wholeheartedly with Angie about how the world was definitely ending and middle school was the worst.

Thanks again to the publishers for this opportunity!

This was a great middle grade read! I liked the main character Angie and how she grew into herself through the book. Even though I'm an adult now, there were still a lot of parts that I related to and remembered/ felt nostalgic about with my personal experiences while reading the book! I would recommend this one to young kids.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. At first, Jade wants to fit in with the cool crowd but learns along the way that they’re not really cool but bullies instead. She learns that her new friendship isn’t what she thought it’d be and that’s it’s making her a worse friend. At first, she’s not crazy about jui jitsu but learns along the way, that it’s very helpful. Jade learns along the way that it’s okay to be yourself.

First off, let me just say that I love jiu-jitsu. And I want my daughter to learn it as well.

At first all the talk of sweat and grossness and bodily contact almost made rethink about signing my daughter up. But I’m glad the book ended the way it did, because I still will probably enroll my daughter!

The book started off quite typical… your typical kid who doesn’t want to be invisible, but wants to be cool. But of course, she doesn’t realize the true friend that’s right in front of her. It was all a bit cliche, but it got better and more compelling. Still a little bit too idealistic (because really, what kid figures this out quickly, while still in their youth!) But when things started getting interesting and the plot was moving forward, I definitely read the second half much faster than the first half.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC! I was so happy to see a book about a girl AND joy-jitsu!!!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I absolutely adore this book! I can't think of a single thing I disliked about it.

Angie was such an awesome main character. I really liked how she was written as such a normal kid. She messed up multiple times before finally finding her path and I loved it. So many times you see young characters do not-so-childlike things or have these weirdly grownup attitudes, but Angie is a simple kid. She's a wonderful character for kids of all ages to read about and relate to. Heck, even as an adult I still found her relatable at times.

As a reader I was overjoyed to be reading this. As a kid who was a bit of a loner I felt empowered while reading this. As a mom, I'm so happy writers like Dutton exist to create characters like Angie that my own daughter can grow up with.

Thank you so much to Jolly Fish Press and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Angie is an invisible girl who has just moved to a new place, is being forced by her mom to take part in a sport she doesn’t enjoy Jiu-Jitsu. Then at her new school she is assigned partners with a popular girl Olivia who she desperately wants to impress.

This book deals with a lot of issues that are written and handled well, doing something you hate, trying to fit in, being bullied and learning self confidence. There is a lot of bullying in this story which is a bit much at times. Our protagonist uses all she knows and has been taught to protect herself.

She is forced by her mom to do a what his known as a male centric sport that she detests. Jiu-Jitsu is something she really hates and creates a long list of reason she wants to stop doing it. Her mom ignores her feelings knowing over time she will need it and love it. Over time within the book she realises that it was vital and it helped her when she needed it. I do love that she grew to appreciate the sport, it’s good representation for a sport not wildly known about and especially not with girls.

She goes through such a big change within this book from her being invisible at her previous school and unhappy with it, to being given a chance to change everything about who she is wanting to upgrade herself with new clothing just to belong. The girls she idolises and thought could be her best friends end up just being bullies. She learns a lot of life lessons through these changes in her life, mostly about who she really is.

I loved that over time she over comes so many obstacles, she learns so much about herself, does make a good best friend and realises there was so much more to her than changing herself for the popular girls. Her self-confidence grows so much from the invisible girl we meet in chapter one to the girl we see by the end of the story. It was really great character progression.

This book will teach readers a lot and they will certainly find themselves within the pages of this book. Angie is a relatable voice to the middle grade age group as she learns so much about her self, who she truly is. It is told in a very heartfelt way but with some humour mixed in too. I think it will be a book readers will enjoy a lot.

I really liked this book. We have the protagonist Angie, who is a girl going through 5th grade being an "invisible" person, trying to fit in and get noticed.

Also dealing with her mother who insisted on making her daughter like jiu-jitsu even though she initially hates it. Along the way we see Angie growing her confidence.

You might even end up identifying with Angie at some point, I did. The book sends a very good message about self discovery and friendship.
And to finish, thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this digital ARC.

Initial impression: Really liked this book! I appreciated the overall message/theme, thought it was realistic and believable, and thought that Angie was a terrific main character who reminded me a lot of my own middle school aged daughter.

It's not easy being new at school, and Angie has made a habit of always being invisible. She's isn't able to stay under the radar at her new school though, as mean girl Olivia and her friends soon start picking on her. On top of all that is going on at school, Angie's mom has signed her up for Jiu-Jitsu lessons, and she's training for an upcoming tournament. Angie desperately wants to quit Jiu-Jitsu, but as time goes by and she starts liking it, Angie keeps with it and learns some valuable lessons about true friendship, acceptance, standing up to bullies, and the power that comes with being able to defend yourself.

As a mom, the bullying was tough to read. Angie tried so hard to fit in, even buying new clothes and jeopardizing a real friendship due to peer pressure. Her mom was so supportive! But bullies are everywhere, and it hurt my heart to see what Angie went through.

Luckily, she had Jiu-Jitsu, which gave her the tools to stand up to the bullies and defend her friend. I loved seeing Angie's feelings about Jiu-Jitsu evolve throughout the book. I was cheering for her throughout!

After moving for her mom's job, Angie wants to reinvent herself at her new school, but that will be hard to do when her mom forces her to take jiu-jitsu classes as her after-school activity. She has always considered herself to be one of the "invisible kids" and it's easy to understand her desire to change and be noticed. As she strives to be accepted by the girls she most admires, she finds out a lot about who she really is and what is most important to her. This book is full of humor and heart, as well as so many interesting interactions between Angie and her peers, both on and off the jiu-jitsu mat. There is also excellent representation of juvenile diabetes. It's great to see a new book that's about a girl doing a sport more traditionally practiced by boys, and it's also great to see Angie's growth and change throughout the story.

Jennifer Dutton writes an entertaining book that has relevance for young readers, and was quite fun. I would readily recommend this to middle grades students (and upper elementary), and gladly add it to my classroom library.

I recieved a free eARC of this book, and quite enjoyed reading it. Thank you for the opportunity,

Angie is an invisible person...or so she thinks. So invisible that neither her 5th grade teacher, nor her Jiu-Jitsu coach call her by the correct name. She wants to fit in, to take dance or gymnastics instead of Jiu-Jitsu, to have the right clothes and devices. When after moving, she is assigned to be science partners with Olivia, the queen bee, she feels that her life is turning around.

This is the kind of middle grade book where you know what will happen as soon as you pick it up. And you know what? It doesn't matter. Because it's also the kind of middle grade book that young readers will find something to relate to and connect with, and will enjoy reading, and will likely reread. It would be a fine addition to school and classroom libraries, as well as at home.

Hilarious novels that tackles serious issues! It's one of the best middle-grade books that I've read this year. The voice is spot on. Plus, it has such an important message. It's about friendship and identity. It's about the desire to be popular, and about figuring out who you are and who you want to be... And about jiu-jitsu, of course!

Our library probably won't purchase it, but I'm definitely going to recommend it to my followers on Twitter.