I love this empowering read! I read it with my sport-loving 4th grader and she really enjoyed watching Al follow her dreams.

Although I'm not a sportsy person, I do love reading about sportys gals who are great at it! This was wholesome, cute, a little emotional, and full of love.

Tryouts is fantastic as a stand alone middle grade/middle school graphic novel about friendship, beloved hobbies, and what it means to be a team. It's also a great installment in Sarah Sax's "Brinkley Yearbooks" series, which has been entirely stellar so far. I really hope there will be more future installments!

Tryouts is a great follow up to Picture Day! This book follows Alexandra, who is the first girl to make her school’s baseball team. Throughout the season, the team faces pressure from their community to defend their championship title and Alex faces a different pressure of doing well so that she can continue to have opportunities to play in traditionally boys-only spaces. I love the side storyline with Alex’s friends and reviving the school’s old mascot - it brought some humor to the story and something that kids may relate to even if they don’t play sports. This story comes at a perfect time as more people are watching and investing in women’s sports.

I received an ARC from Random House Children's | Knopf Books for Young Readers via Net Galley. This middle grade graphic novel follows 7th grader Al as she tryouts for the boys baseball team. This is a cute middle school slice of life story. While it is the 2nd in a series, you don’t have to read Picture Day to enjoy Al’s story. It is a nice balance of school life, family, friendship overcoming challenges and teamwork. Good incorporation of secondary characters. Easy to read, fun, and affirming.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.

Tryouts is the sequel to Picture Day, where sporty Al is trying out for the school's baseball team. She would be the first girl on the team and hopes to help the team win their tenth championship. The heart of the story is Al dealing with team conflicts, losing games, and helping give girls' sports teams as much recognition as boys. I enjoyed this probably even more than Picture Day because Viv is a difficult character to like and root for, while Al is just the best. Viv does have a side story that brings some much-needed comedy to juxtapose the more serious issues found in Tryouts. The artwork is solid with full-color illustrations and backgrounds that match the main characters. The Brinkley Yearbooks is turning out to be a loving series and I can't wait to read the next installment (hopefully about Milo and his nerdy Art Club friends).

When Al tries out for baseball and becomes the first and only girl on the team, she's thrilled just to be able to play the sport she loves. But the pressure to perform well and maintain a winning record takes its toll on the players. And when local media focuses on Al and her role on the team more than the team as a whole, the team falls apart.

A good middle grade graphic novel that focuses on finding your passion and getting involved in something you love.

"Tryouts" by Sarah Sax is the second book in addition to the Brinkley Yearbook series. I adored this book!! | felt it was the perfect book that I needed to feel lighter and to laugh!
Follow Alexandra, aka Al, as she challenges gender norms in middle school sports and joins the historically boys-only baseball team. As the team struggles to maintain their championship title, Al's determination and love for the game shine through every situation that arises!
Sax beautifully captures the excitement and tension of middle school sports, making "Tryouts" a delightful read for middle schoolers!

Tryouts by Sarah Sax is a fabulous MG graphic novel that will help readers navigate working together with a team, following their dreams, and standing up for what they believe in. Alexandra (Al) has always played and loved baseball, but she is faced with a challenge when the only way to play would be to join the boys team. She needs to convince them to give her a chance, encourage the team to work together, and prove herself as a player good enough to play with the boys. This book is part of a series, but absolutely can be read without reading the others. MG reader will love it!

A fun, sporty graphic with plenty of middle-grade appeal. I would argue that this one is much better than its predecessor.

The artwork of this one pulled me immediately into a comfortable urban scenario with confident and bold lines, characters, and colors. All shows very well and it's easy to read. I love all the characters, not just the main one, Al who wants to follow her passion to play baseball but the school's team is usually just for males. Viv with her obsession to know all about the mystery mascot is a fabulous character with amazing moments of compassion, and Milo with his amazing skills and passion for creating quilts. As the author mentions in her note, this is not just trying out for baseball, many characters are experimenting with things, from small to impacting their lives or community. Being active for the sake of a better community, for change and to do what is right. It was very uplifting. The drawings of the baseball game were well done and exciting as well. My favorite page is the double page almost at the end and I love that we get insights from the players of their current emotions or expectations. Very cool not only for baseball fans but as a celebration of friendship.
I read this one as a standalone.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc.

I'm not really a huge sports person, but this book was pretty heartwarming and inspiring nonetheless!

Welcome Back!

I really love reading graphic novels and manga. There is just something so fun about diving into these stories and just getting to enjoy them alongside images that help to represent the characters, settings, situations, and more. Recently I picked up a graphic novel E-ARC (thank you so much to the publisher for the E-ARC in exchange for my honest review). I had no idea when I decided to pick this one up there was a graphic novel before it (so now I am trying to hunt a copy down to read) but in the meantime let’s talk about Tryouts!

SPOILERS AHEAD

Al is a female baseball player but now in middle school she is not sure she will get to play anymore. They have a boy’s team but not a girl’s team. After some research performed by her friends and a chat with her family, she decides she is going to sign up for tryouts for the boy’s team. The new coach does not put up a fight and is actually very excited to have Al trying out. Al tries out and does her best, she patiently waits for the news of if she made the team, and when the day comes that the coach makes the announcements, Al learns she made the team! She is beyond excited and they are able to start the session off strong. However, there starts to be some follies when Al is recognized by the media and they cut out some items from the interview to make it appear like Al is attributing all the success to herself instead of the team. Now the team is mad and Al and Al is feeling all off. But can the team make a comeback? This is very important to everyone but it would require them to pull together to pull this off!

I absolutely loved this graphic novel. Al, her family, her friends, and her teammates were all interesting and I loved getting to be a part of their world for just a little bit. Additionally, this graphic novel’s colors pop off the page and catch your attention, they make you want to continue reading this story and learning more about Al’s journey. I am currently hunting down the first graphic novel in this series and I am so excited to get to have more time in this world. This graphic novel is coming out on May 7th! I highly recommend giving it a try!

Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars

***Thank you so much to the publisher for the E-ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's for the ARC. Tryouts is about a girl named AL(Alexandra) who is done with rec baseball and wants to play school ball. Unfortunately, there is no girls team, so she and another girl tryout for the boys team. The boys have been on a winning season in the past years and they fill the girls will make them lose. It will be hard work and real sportsmanship to get them to work together.

When Al ages out of rec baseball, her friends assume she will play softball. Al knows that softball isn't the same as baseball and knows she is just as good, if not better than the boys on the team. This is a story of friends having each other's backs and what happens when you can't believe in yourself, but your friends can!

3.5⭐️
Second installment from The Brinkley Yearbook series, this time the main star is Al, the redhead sporty girl! She took risk to join tryouts for the boy baseball team because the school doesn’t have a girl team.

I love the illustration & coloring style. Though the storytelling felt a bit out of place and hard to follow sometimes, and the fact that i’m not a fan of sports didn’t help at all haha. But it’s still nice to read.

Really lovely book about the first girl on an all-boy's baseball team at her middle school. When the team is featured in the news, the journalists focus too much on the protagonist Al rather than the whole team. The story really makes the point that kids should be able to tell the story that is important to them.

There are so many good things going on in this book. Al loves baseball and tries out for the boys baseball team. She gets a lot of positive attention for it. The girls basketball team is undefeated and isn’t getting attention got it. Al knows something is wrong but has to figure out how to fix it. Great story with fun characters. A lot of depth to the story.

What a fun and engaging middle grade graphic novel! The illustrations are wonderful, and the story line is very cute. Can Al, who played little league baseball but can't technically join the middle school team, help them win another championship? The cast of characters offers many points of entry for readers. A reader does not need to love sports to love this book.

Great sports story for middle school. The ancillary plots include students who are spectators, making this novel relatable to a variety of students. The dynamics among the students and among the teachers/admin are realistically portrayed. I could see this situation occurring in many schools, though students might not always have the support of the teachers that they have in this story. Great addition for middle school libraries.