Sign Me Up

Chapter 1: I Kill the Engine. Final words: “I may never come back.”

And Alyssa doesn’t – at least not to Alaska.

When Alyssa’s moves from Alaska to California, the 16-year-old ice skater faces challenges of a new school (she was home schooled before), friends (she didn’t really have any before), and all the sounds of L.A. (it was pretty quiet before).

This story is jam-packed with action – it’s a roller derby! – as well as representation with a deaf mom and a budding lesbian relationship.

With themes of being an introvert, making new friends, and normalizing same-sex love, this middle grade novel is a great read. 4.5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley, Rosen Publishing Group, West 44 Books, and C.H. Williams for the opportunity to read Sign Me Up in exchange for an honest review.

Sign Me Up is a young adult hi-lo novel-in-verse that covers a range of inclusive diversity, including LGBTQ rep, deaf rep, and a shoutout to introverts and how the world around us makes us feel (appreciated here by a fellow introvert).

Alyssa loves ice-skating in solitude at a local lake in her quiet Alaska town. When both her parents get new jobs in LA, the move is inevitable. Alyssa doesn't like a lot of people or loud noises, so she isn't sure how well she will fit in to the LA lifestyle. As the new kids, she's a hot topic, and one group has no qualms about joining her at lunch and becoming quick friends. Alyssa's mom is deaf, so Alyssa automatically signs with everything she speaks, and to her, signing is louder than vocal words. When her new friends find out, it is not something to be embarrassed of, but something to be proud of when they all want to learn from her.

Soon, Alyssa is invited  to try roller skating. With her history of ice-skating, she thinks it should be fun. But when she finds out it's much harder than ice skating, as well as loud with a lot of people involved, it gets a bit overwhelming. But Alyssa's friends, and newfound girlfriend, push her to not give up.

With exquisite poppy rhymes sprinkles throughout, Sign Me Up is a quick read with a musical jingle. The diversity of the content makes for a largely unique read as well, including the LGBT rep, deaf awareness, introversion, and the not-so-commonly seen in books topic of Roller Derby. A great novel for a young adult audience.

Transitions can be hard, as Alyssa knows all too well. When her family moves from Alaska to California, almost everything changes. This book-in-verse masterfully explores coming of age issues such as friendship, new love, and self-confidence amidst the backdrop of skating. Get schooled on roller derby with this quick, fun read,

Disclaimer. I got an advanced copy of the book for review.


I find it difficult to read books. I love books. I bought a kindle to read books. I try to limit my mobile use time to read books... but it takes me a long long long time to read them. It frustrates my wife who can read 30-40 books a year easy, and I'm lucky to get through 6.

So this book, written in verse, I finished in less than a day. And this is not because its short (its only 10000 words) but because the way its written allowed me to some how get into a proper rhythm. I didnt put it down. From start to finish. And this is from someone who struggles to read comic books in one sitting.

The book itself is about a girl who has to make a new life in a new city, and finds more about herself along the way. I dont want to give too much away. Its a really fun read. I highly recommend you give it a go! I'm off to read some more novels like this. It was super fun.

This book was really good, it was so cool to read about the main character and her experiences as an introvert, which I can definitely relate to. I really enjoyed seeing her learn about herself and watching her grow as the story went on.

Engaging and relatable.. the prose format is crisp and to the point with no wasted words and you find yourself along for the ride of human emotions ❤️

Alyssa’s Mom is starting a new job so the whole family is moving from remote Alaska to busy Los Angeles. When Alyssa is befriended by the junior roller derby team, she learns that ice skating is not like roller derby, just like public school is not like being home schooled by her deaf Mom. Although Alyssa’s first instinct is to bail on it all, a new girlfriend coaches her to build up her skills and her tolerance, for derby and for her new life. Alyssa learns to embrace her inner introvert and even discovers that her knowledge of ASL is celebrated by her new friends and her teammates.

Accessible verse with a high interest topic make this short novel in verse a unique title. I appreciated the inclusion of deaf characters and the centrality of ASL to the plot. I loved the derby focus, but there are a few problems with the representation of the sport: Where are the derby names? And the skates on the cover are the wrong type! As a hi lo title, the book has some problems with pacing and an abrupt ending, but I think the book's virtues outweigh its shortcomings. I especially liked the titles at the top of the page that will help struggling readers follow the story.

Thanks to West44 Books & NetGalley for providing a copy for review!

Thank you so much to Rosen Publishing / West 44 and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Alyssa is an ice skater in Alaska until her family moves to California, on her first day of school a group of girls join her and become fascinated by her, they recruit her into their roller derby team, but it’s not that easy for Alyssa to get used too.

I knew literally nothing about roller derby before reading this a book, nothing at all but this book taught me so much. It was so much fun and fascinating i could have kept reading more on these characters and their sport it was an amazing read. I really enjoyed going in this new journey with Alyssa as she learnt to figure out what she was supposed to be doing in this sport and what her role really was.

I really enjoyed how Alyssa went from being a lone wolf just enjoying her own company, to being surrounded by this massive group and having to figure out and learn how to accept and cope with it. I also really loved that she got in a relationship with Saffy that was just adorable and I liked that addition within it, their one on one dates were so cute.

This was honestly so much more than I expected it to be and I read it so quickly and really kept wanting more after it was done. I really enjoyed following along with Alyssa as she learnt how to do this new sport, how she learned to deal with her crippling panic she got during the matches and how she learn to overcome being surrounded by a large group of friends.

I love verse books they manage to tell so much story but in a smaller way and I get so gripped into them and I throughly enjoy reading them. This book was exactly why I love them, with so much packed into this one short book, you get to learn so much, go on a journey with a character, meet so many new people and get so gripped within everything you are reading. I will always recommend them as they are a great quick read with very unique and highly fascinating stories.

This book was really well written and laid out. I was initially drawn to this book because I have a background with roller derby, and I’m glad I picked it up because it made me feel seen. As someone who also struggles with anxiety and audio-processing, Alyssa’s story was extremely relatable. Watching her perseverance and problem-solving was inspirational. This story was a quick read, but one I’ll return to again and again.

Additionally, the layout and formatting was really well done. There was one page where Alyssa talked about being an outsider and not fitting in, and on that page in the edition I read, the text was laid out in a different font than all the other pages. This stood out to me and really emphasized the “otherness” she was feeling in that instance. Well done to whoever made that decision.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for a review!

I thought this was a really sweet middle grade book, and the novel-in-verse format made it a quick and easy read. The main character, Alyssa, felt authentic in ways I didn't anticipate--I'd never thought about how the noise of a big city like LA would sound to someone who had spent their whole life somewhere quiet like Alaska. While there are other characters in this book, who are certainly important, this is definitively Alyssa's book. Even Alyssa's girlfriend, Saffy, felt very secondary to the narrative about Alyssa's anxiety and struggles with noise.

I really wished I could have seen a little more of Saffy and Alyssa's friendship before they started dating. I think it would have made the most sense for their first kiss to be at their first "skate date," since that was when they started to seem like a real couple to me. However, I recognize that having them sort of rush into the relationship is very truthful to the tendencies of teenagers at that age, so it didn't bother me too much!

I liked the use of font variation and unconventional formatting for emphasis, and the designs behind the pages, although they didn't translate particularly well to my kindle. Overall a short but fun and cute read!

Quick easy read. The format on the Kindle was not good, but it was readable. I enjoyed the story; I think that teens will enjoy it. It's always good to see more sports books in this age group.

I love that the story is in verses (what do you call this kind of book?) The verses sometimes are in pattern or have a particular format that is associated with the current topic. The story of the MC moving from Alaska and facing some challenges because of the ongoing changes in her life is engaging as well as entertaining (I love following the words because, again, they sometimes have a different format).

The more books written in verse I read, the more I really start to enjoy the style of writing. Sign Me Up follows Alyssa, who has just moved from Alaska to sunny California. She finds herself with a new group of friends who are on a roller derby team together. So Alyssa trades in her ice skates for a pair of roller skates and joins them.

I really liked the character of Alyssa. I think the author took great care in crafting her personality. She is a sweet girl who also deals with anxiety. Throughout the book, she learns more about herself, eventually realizing that it's okay to be introverted and it's okay to need a time out to re-energize.

I absolutely loved the Deaf and ASL representations. Alyssa's mom is deaf, so there is a lot of mentions of signing. I thought it was really sweet that Alyssa's friends fully accept her, even though she often signs around them, despite them all being hearing. And it was also so sweet that they wanted to learn some ASL as well.

As a Minnesotan, I completely related to the ice skating and the hard transition to quad skates in roller derby! I really liked the characters and Alyssa in particular. I felt that they were all fleshed out, for a 200 page book. I also liked the format, though it originally threw me for a loop since I wasn’t expecting poetry, but I quickly got into the rhythm of it.
It’s a cute, short story of trying new things and learning how to stay true to yourself while also branching out.

A great novel in verse that also touches on the anxiety that some feel around large groups of people and noise. In this story, Alyssa has just moved from rural Alaska to Los Angeles. She is an introvert, so making new friends is a daunting task. Fortunately, a group of girls takes pity on her sitting by herself and then are intrigued when she absent mindedly uses ASL with them. Her mother is deaf, so she is simply used to talking both with her mouth and her hands. Little does she know, these girls are also on a roller derby team and ask her to join them. She has to adjust to roller skates vs ice skates and the insanity that is the derby world. A great book about taking chances and letting people in.

Sign Me Up is a sapphic high school romance. It deals with changes and finding your place while navigating an entirely new place. It is written in prose. I do feel it would be beneficial to read aloud to both feel the cadence of the prose better and to allow for changes in volume to match the characters experiences
Alyssa is an ice skater who is shy and introverted. Her family moves from Alaska to California and she is left navigating a new loud school in a place far from home. Struggling to fit in Alyssa discovers roller derby. Having grown up with a mom who is deaf Alyssa is use to the quiet roller derby is anything but. Her new group of rowdy friends help her deal with anxiety and sensory over load.
I found this to be a fast read that would be perfect to read aloud to a class or group of friends. Sign Me Up was fun, slightly quirky and over all a quite enjoyable read

I received and ARC through NetGalley to read and review. I'll be honest, I requested it solely because of the roller skates on the cover so when I opened it to start reading, I was pleasantly surprised that it was written in verse! I enjoyed the story of Alyssa and her adjustment after moving from Alaska to California. The roller derby team was fun and the sweet little blossoming romance with Saffy was cute without taking over the story. There's some great rep in this one to include: deaf/signing and anxiety.

I love novels in verse because they're easy to read but I always worry I won't get a full picture of the story and the characters. I was happy when I realized by the end of the book that I felt like I know Alyssa. Sign Me Up was sweet, to the point, had great representation, and had quite a few awwww moments. I would definitely recommend this if you don't want anything too long or outstanding! 3.5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book makes me feel seen as a jammer who cannot block to save their life. Shorter than I would have liked, but overall a sweet story of finding your people and working hard to learn something new.

This was a lovely, quick read of a verse novel with an interesting premise. I did think that the deaf characters would be featured more prominently, although having watched CODA recently I did appreciate that it was a hearing child who was fluent in sign language.

The ease with which she made friends in her new school was a refreshing change to the normal YA novel, although because of the length of the book some relationships and conflicts felt they could have been fleshed out more.

As someone who is not a fan of verse novels in general I nonetheless enjoyed this one and will be recommending it to friends in the future.

As an avid roller skater, I read everything I can that deals with the topic! I really enjoyed this story of an ice skater who moves to a new town and meets a group of roller derby players and joins their team. The story was less about roller skating and more about managing anxiety, making friends, working as part of a team, and forming new relationships. The story was fast paced and quick to read, especially given the novel in verse format.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. Sigm Me Up is the story of Alyssa who moves from Alaska where it is quiet and cold to Los Angeles where it is loud and busy. Alyssa is used to ice skating alone, but after moving to LA she signs up for roller derby. But Alyssa likes it quiet and solitary, and LA and roller derby are decidedly not. This is a great story of friends allowing people to be who they are, finding your own space, and being comfortable with who you are.

"I tried a single axel, on the ice, a spin I'd practiced for weeks... I thought I was ready. But wasn't certain until I tried. (Of course, I landed on my butt.) But I would never have gotten there at all if I hadn't tried."

3.5 rounded down to a 3.

This is my first hi/low book, and for those of you (like me) who haven't heard of this kind of book before, hi/low stands for high-interest/low-readability - basically, it's a YA book that deals with YA topics, but is written at a lower (more midgrade) reading level. It's great for kids who want to transition out of midgrade books and into YA books, or for YA readers who struggle with reading. I think this was a really great example of a hi/low book, and I can definitely say that it fits the category nicely! Sign Me Up definitely reads like a midgrade novel, but it tackles older topics like starting high school, moving to a new state, anxiety, introversion, first relationships, and more specifically, queer relationships.

I will say that I do sort of wish this book had either been hi/low or in verse, but not both - it was really just too short and too surface-level of a read. I really did like that Sign Me Up is entirely written from Alyssa's perspective, with no heavy descriptions or large chunks of dialogue, and that really lends itself to the poetic verse style. But for a YA book, hi/low or otherwise, it really just sort of reads as the kind of short story they give to kids in schools as part of a short story analysis assignment. I read Williams' bio at the back of the book, and considering she's a queer roller derby skater, I would've loved to have seen this be a full-fledged book, especially with how much explanation needs to go into explaining how roller derby works.

Still, this was a very intimate book, and you really do get to feel Alyssa's anxieties and worries. I remember those feelings in early high school of feeling a lot of things but not knowing what name to put to them (anxiety, introversion, etc.), and I think that it was a really important inclusion in this story. I also really loved the disability inclusion, not only as just a normal, accepted, everyday part of Alyssa's life, but how she incorporates her knowledge of ASL into other parts of her life. Especially for a hi/low book, I think it's important to look at how different fragments of who you are as a person can come together in ways you never expected, with a little out-of-the-box thinking. It was a really clever way to combine the things that Alyssa was good at to give her confidence, and that's such a vital thing for slice-of-life YA books like these.

Overall, this was a great, quick read - I think this will even be quick for midgrade/YA readers, because despite being 200 pages, this story being written in verse means there's only maybe 50 to 100 words per page, tops. I think it could've gone a little bit deeper and been written a little more fully, but for what it is, it was a really uplifting story - and may or may not have reignited my desire to try out for a derby team!