Practice Girl
by Estelle Laure
High School    Viking    320 pp.   g
5/22    978-0-593-35091-1    $18.99

Seventeen-year-old Jo is devastated when she overhears the boy she recently slept with refer to her as a “practice girl”: someone to have sex with for experience, but not to date. She’s further humiliated to discover that she is widely known by that label among the guys on the ­wrestling team, of which she’s the manager; worse, her best friend, team member Sam, didn’t tell her about it. Jo quits, then defiantly rejoins—as a competitor. (Her love for the sport comes from her late father, who was the wrestling coach.) At her first meet, Dax, a rival wrestler with a reputation of his own, asks her out. But are his intentions genuine? They are, it turns out, and Jo and Dax are caring, honest, and mature together. Laure (Remember Me, rev. 3/22) demonstrates a keen understanding of adolescent ­interactions, and not only romantic ones. Jo’s reflections on her relationships with family and friends—in particular her complicated feelings for Sam—are nuanced and insightful. The protagonist’s growth, both physical and emotional, pays off: in the satisfying ending, she finds victory on the mat and recognizes that she deserves to be loved and appreciated unconditionally. She may well help readers to recognize that they deserve the same.

From the July/August 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.