Book review - Jiu-Jitsu Girl

 

Title: Jiu-Jitsu Girl

Author: Jennifer Dutton

Genre: realistic fiction

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Rating:

 

solid combination of elements

Summary (provided by publisher): 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 idolizes 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?

My opinion: 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.

More information: Jiu-Jitsu Girl releases January 24.

Advance Reader Copy provided by NetGalley