Loved this graphic novel! The design was really cool and the cast was super sweet. Sports books for graphic novels are few and far between, and it's great that there are more books being published! Definitely fills a need.

I really like this book! If you love baseball, girl power, and finding your way then this middle grade graphic novel is for you. The characters are quirky and fun, and Elena finds a new friend at a least likely time. Elena learns to grow without a bat in her hand, and this is a new experience for her.

Elena gets hurt playing baseball, the sport she loves, but not quite as much as her mother, and has to figure out something else to do. Her wise grandfather encourages her to try new things, namely, role playing (LARPing) with her brother and his friends, but it doesn't quite come easily to Elena. Kids will empathize with Elena as she struggles to find something she enjoys when she can no longer play baseball, they'll understand how challenging it is for Elena to stand up to her mom, too.

This book was really fun. I loved how the main character has to look outside of her box. It gives an honest account of someone stuck in something because their parents wants them there, not because it’s a passion of their own. A very important lesson for any kid. I will be purchasing this one for my daughters. They are going to love it!

Middle schooler Elena Rueda is the only girl on her baseball team, and she feels pressured by her mother to be the best. After an injury, she joins her brother’s cosplay group and realizes she can have fun without competition. Overall, the messaging is somewhat heavy handed, but Elena is a sympathetic and relatable character. The family’s mother and grandfather are Latinx and Elena’s father is white, but the family uses some Spanish in the dialogue and celebrates their Latinx heritage. The full color paneled cartoon artwork uses dialogue balloons for all the text, but some readers may be confused because the mother looks just a little older than Elena, as if she was her sister.

My middle-grade students enjoy graphic novels so I am always looking for good ones for our classroom library. This title did not disappoint! I feel like they can relate to the characters in this story because I hear them talk about the topic every day. Middle-grade students feel more pressure than any other grade group to decide what they love and hate without any clear-cut lines. Some parents put added pressure on these kiddos by forcing them or pushing them to do what activities they think are best for them. This title addresses this topic perfectly! Elena is the only girl on the baseball team and her mother pushes her because of that fact. When Elena gets hurt in the game and needs to take some time off to rest, she finally has time to spend with her brother and her other friends. She discovers that there are other things that she enjoys doing besides baseball, but she never has time to do them. She pushes back against her mother and decides to do what makes her happy. This story is great for any student who is feeling that same kind of pressure from their parent. This book has a great message for kids and adults alike! I would like to thank NetGalley for the ARC and I will certainly be recommending this book to my students and purchasing it for our classroom library.

Curveball is about a girl being pushed by her mom to go to the next level in softball. She has an injury and remembers how fun life can be. I had a little trouble following the imagination side of the story but I think I understood it at the end. Addresses parents pushing their children to live out their dreams.

A graphic novel that follows tween Elena, who plays baseball for her local team, and is beginning to see life outside of baseball for the first time. Her mother, a former player, seems to be putting her own hopes and dreams that never happened onto her daughter. Elena has followed along because she didn’t know better, but as she starts her summer with a brief break from the game, she spends time with her brother and his friends and sees there is more to enjoying life than being on a baseball path all the time.

A sweet story about kids spending their summer playing and using their imagination as they navigate their own challenges. Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for being given a digital ARC of this book. I look forward to recommending this book to the kids in my library this summer!

I received a free ebook ARC from Disney Hyperion via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This juvenile graphic novel stars Elena who’s whole life is focused on baseball and who’s mom is hyper-focused on her success. Elena is questioning how much she loves baseball and why she is doing it. When Elena has an injury in the summer that has her hanging out with her brother and his friends who LARP – she realizes how hard it is to open up her imagination. Will Elena be able to find what is most fun for her? Overall, this is a cute and well-illustrated story that could have spent more time developing all the characters. It was also a bit cliqued in parts, but easy to read.

Elena is an amazing athlete - as the only girl on the baseball team, she needs to be better than everyone else to show them girls are legitimate players. Her mom was also a player, but her dreams were squashed by stricter rules restricting girls from playing. So her mom has been training her since day one to be a super star no one can deny. When an injury at the begining of the summer sidelines her training, Elena has an opportunity - is this who she wants to be?

Elena lives and breathes baseball. But lately, the thrill of the game has been replaced by burnout. Fueled by her mom's relentless expectations, Elena feels lost - unsure of who she is without a bat in her hand. A minor injury becomes an unexpected chance to step back from the diamond. Venturing beyond the baseball field, Elena finds herself drawn to the world of her brother's quirky friends, the BORKS. These free spirits love to dress up and create fantastical worlds. As Elena joins their adventures, she learns more about her brother and herself. Curveball is a graphic novel that hits a home run with its wonderful characters and exploration of friendship, imagination, and finding your own path. It's a must-read for anyone who's ever felt like they have to live up to someone else's expectations.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Elena has spent her whole life working to be the best baseball player--the only girl on the boys' teams. She and her mom are determined to have her play high school baseball with the boys. When an injury sidelines Elena for the summer, she has time and space to determine what she really wants.

A solid middle grade graphic novel that incorporates sports, imagination, friendship, and family.

I have a love of baseball, and when it is a a girl playing, it make it even better. I enjoyed this book and how life can have its pressures. A person needs to decide what to do, but yet doesn’t want to disappoint anyone. That was this book. In the end with communication things did get better for the main character. She gained friends an imagination and she got to play ball but in a different way that she enjoyed. The pictures were colorful and easy to see, some graphic novels, have awful graphics, but not this book.
The only thing I didn’t like in the book, was the Spanish words. I have no background in Spanish and could not figure out what was being said. As a speech and language pathologist, when working with students 90-95% of information must be presented so they can understand, and with that Spanish, they would have a difficult time with this book. That would be the only reason why I wouldn’t use it for therapy. I will suggest they read it on their own though.

This story is about Elena, a middle school girl that plays baseball on a boy's team (the only one available). She enjoys baseball, but that seems secondary to her mother's reasons for Elena playing baseball, namely that Elena has the chance to achieve what her mother and grandmother could not. When a non-baseball related knee injury sidelines Elena, she doesn't know what to do with herself, but finds she is relieved to not be playing baseball. With the encouragement of her grandfather, she "plays" with her brother and his band of LARPers, but finds that imaginary worlds are hard for her, she is so use to the rules and absolutes of baseball. During her struggles to fit in with the LARP group she meets Toni, a girl who now lives with her grandmother after the death of her parents. She and Toni are able to talk to each other, and help each other be brave in telling the adults in their lives that they need to be able to make their own choices about the things they care about .

This graphic novel moves quickly, with lots of action in the panels. With problems such as over-bearing parents, and pressure to perform, I think that many kids will find something to relate to. In addition, role-playing games are becoming more popular again, and the LARP group is a large part of this story, so that will also draw readers. The cast is diverse, with Elena's family (Cuban) reverting to Spanish, especially when overwhelmed or talking to grandfather, but it is easily understood as the listener often repeats the meaning of the words in English. Definitely a graphic novel that has a strong story behind it.

Sure to be a popular hit with middle grade graphic novel fans! Elena is the only girl in her baseball league, constantly training with her mom with the goal of high school baseball in her future. Benji, her little brother, is the game master of his neighborhood LARPing group, constantly in dragon costume and accompanying cape. When an injury at the start of the summer has Elena feeling isolated and questioning if she really wants to continue training, she hesitantly joins Benji with his LARPing group: the BORKs. But how can you have fun when there's no way to win?

Curveball encourages using your imagination and embracing your inner child, addressing topics like making new friends, competitiveness, open communication, generational trauma, grief, and the importance of having fun.

Pablo Cartaya is one of my favorite juvenile fiction authors, not just for his ability to connect people to Latin American culture, but also for his ability to make engaging and relatable content. This one is no exception. Elena is the only girl on a baseball team and is given an immense amount of pressure because of it. She feels it the most from her mom. But what happens, when she injured her knee and is to play make-believe with her brother and his friends? Elena is pushed to her limits and out of her comfort zone to indulge in her imagination, if she can find it. All the while, she’s learning how to make friends, become her own person, and finally be honest with her family. This story also has a positive perspective on therapy, not as a main part of the story, but as a side-characters part, as well as them dealing with loss in their life. I truly look forward to purchasing this title and sharing it with my community.

I loved Curveball. It had a lot of elements that worked really well together- family pressure, friendship, dealing with loss, and opening one’s self up to new experiences. The cast was also diverse. Elena’s entire life revolves around baseball. She is a good athlete and her mother pressures her to always be better. When she injures her knee and can’t play during the summer, she is surprised to realize how relieved she is. Her little brother introduces her to his LARPing group. At first she doesn’t understand it and thinks it’s silly. Eventually she becomes friends with the other kids and a girl called Toni, who is dealing with the loss of her parents. Elena finally has a conversation with her mother about her complicated feelings towards baseball. The story was solid and it has great illustrations.

I’ll purchase this for the library, since demand for graphics is so high, I really liked Cartaya’s *Efren Divided*, and it isn’t awful, but it feels hasty, sloppy, and not fully fleshed (or thought?) out. I won’t recommend it.

Thanks due to #netgalley for access to the digital ARC

In Curveball, Elena Rueda is the best girl baseball player who has lost her enjoyment of the sport. Elena struggles with saying anything to her Mother, a former baseball player herself, about not wanting to play baseball anymore. As she navigates her feelings, Elena's brother encourages her to spend some time with the BORKs and their unique activities such as LARPing. Toni, a new girl in the neighborhood, encourages Elena to follow her heart, and this propels Elena to tell her mom that she doesn't want to play baseball anymore. Thankfully, Elena's family embraces her decision, which allows Elena to play more with her imagination, and the BORKs, and not all the pressure of competitive baseball.

eARC provided by Netgalley

After Elena hurts her knee, she has to look at what she actually enjoys versus obligations and because of this reflection she finds herself having a truly unexpected summer. Through this fun story, lessons are learned about friendship and imagination and all done in a way that is a quick and fun read with colorful illustrations.