Last One Picked - Audrey Meeker

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Annabeth has the perfect plan for the summer after eighth grade: volunteering at her local library and lounging at home re-reading her favorite books ever, the Warrior Princess series. But when her mom decides to sign her up for volleyball camp - worse, the same volleyball camp her ex-best friend Serena is going to - those plans go out the window. Annabeth is immediately out of her depth, with no experience, no friends, and no kneepads, and the volleyball girls are all tall, athletic, and extroverted...unlike her. Then Serena shows up at the library as a new volunteer, and everything goes from bad to worse.

But it turns out that maybe volleyball isn't the worst thing ever, and Annabeth slowly starts to gain confidence and the support of her teammates, while Serena's bad attitude begins to override her skill on the court. As tryouts approach, the girls make a deal: Annabeth will intentionally fail during tryouts so Serena can have her spot on the team, and in exchange, Serena will let her take her job as a volunteer for the library's upcoming Warrior Princess author event. It seems like a win-win scenario...but suddenly giving up the chance at playing volleyball doesn't sound as great as Annabeth thought it might."

I didn't dislike this book, but I found it to be somewhat under-developed and fuzzy, particularly for a story tackling pretty serious topics like fatphobia, body dysmorphia, disordered eating, etc. Dealing with topics like that, particularly for younger readers (more on my concern about this being for "young readers" later), is tricky, and I thought much of the messaging in this book was muddy. 

One example of this is that early on, Serena's mom suggests volleyball camp to Annabeth's as a great way to encourage Annabeth to be "active" (read: lose weight), and Annabeth's mom is clearly angry at the suggestion. However, she then DOES sign Annabeth up for the camp, and while I, an adult, understood her motivation to be more about pushing Annabeth out of her comfort zone than anything else, Serena's mom later comments on being glad she took her advice and that volleyball camp is a great way to lose weight...and then this is never addressed again. Instead of dropping this thread, I think it would have been beneficial to have some kind of conversation between Annabeth and her mom about this to clear the air and address why she suddenly felt so strongly about Annabeth needing to participate in this camp.

I also thought there were many problematic interactions between Serena and her mom, like her mom not letting her eat between camp and private lessons, commenting on how tight her shorts were, and making Serena feel badly about the way she looked. Again, while I recognize that her mom was objectively terrible and was teaching Serena unhealthy habits, is the average child reading this going to pick up on that when it's pretty much never actually called out? It felt like there were way too many "this is bad" things thrown out but never actually addressed.

And hey, while we're talking about the average child reading this, let's talk about who this book is targeting. Annabeth and Serena just finished eighth grade and are going into high school....so can someone PLEASE explain to me why this book is being suggested for ages nine through twelve?! Why are we marketing books about full teenagers to elementary school students? I'm all for books about body positivity for younger kids, but my kingdom for a book about elementary school students FOR elementary school students. Instead of writing a book about rising high schoolers and marketing it to elementary-age kids, maybe we write a book about rising high schoolers and market it to middle school and high schoolers and then we write a different book about kids in elementary school and market that toward those kids? I know I'm going on a bit of a rant, but marketing decisions like this really bother me.

Deep breath.

Ultimately, while I liked Rosie and the coaches and overall thought this book had promise, I found most of the characters, even Annabeth and Serena, to be pretty flat, and I was very confused at this volleyball camp that seemingly simultaneously focuses on intro skills while also being filled with advanced players. And apparently is only one week long? The world, the plot, all of it just felt half-baked, and I think the book would have benefited from following the characters for longer than a week, being longer to allow for more plot development, and from being targeted at a slightly older demographic.