I received a free digital review copy through NetGalley. This is an important perspective of a girl living normal every day life while having cerebral palsy.

This was a delightful story about a young girl named Ellie with cerebral palsy. She struggles with starting over when her and her mom move to help care for her aging grandparents. Starting a new school is hard enough when you don’t live with disabilities, and for Ellie it was hard. Ellie is able to make some new friends and show that she is more than just “the girl in the wheel chair” when she shares her love for baking!
I have had some children in my preschool with cerebral palsy, but my understanding of living with it is very limited.. This book is soo great for anyone living with cerebral palsy or any other disability. My 9 yr old has developmental disabilities and I thought of him while reading this story.
This would be a great addition to any school library!
Thank you for this review copy.

You rarely see a children’s book with a character in a wheelchair, especially when they’re highlighted on the cover. I knew immediately that I’d have to pick up Roll With It to see how it portrayed disability. When I realized that Ellie had Cerebral Palsy, I was very excited because I have an aunt who also has CP. My aunt’s disability is much more severe as she has only a little muscle control and is also non-verbal. I mean, the public would say that she is non-verbal. But our family has learned different signs to communicate as well as having pictures that we use too.

What most people don’t realize is that CP affects your body, not your mind, my aunt is no dummy. We have a running UNO tournament that we pick up every time we see each other. The only part that we help her with is picking up her cards and placing them on the discard pile. I think Ellie’s story can show readers how judging someone by their looks is never a good idea.

From my own experience, Jamie was able to create a character that not only resonated with me but also felt very true as a middle school voice. Ellie doesn’t apologize for her disability. She’s also her own advocate. Probably something she learned from her mom who has fought tooth and nail to get Ellie what she needed. What I truly enjoyed is that Ellie’s disability doesn’t necessarily define who she is, but is something that she contends with on a daily basis that is a part of her. She’s a multi-faceted character sharing her world with other characters that are just as deep. I loved the characters in this book, especially Ellie’s new friends But also her special relationship with her grandparents. And of course, her PE teacher Hutch who surprises Ellie and her mom with more knowledge than most people know.

This is a perfect story for kids who loved Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper and would make a great discussion book for school or library clubs. You can even download a discussion guide from the author’s website for Roll With It by Jamie Sumner.

This was a wonderful story that included many issues that families face, and it deals with each realistically and sensitively.

The main character, Ellie, is a twelve year old in a wheelchair due to CP. She is a determined young girl who, while realizing there will be limitations throughout her life, she was going to be an independent person who would do what she needed to in order to achieve her dreams. Her determination, boldness, and strength showed through in her actions throughout the story.

In addition to the challenges Ellie faced due to her CP, the story included her friends who had issues due to things such as absentee parents and bullying. Her grandfather was suffering the effects of alzheimer's disease, which of course, affects the entire family.. Although the main focus is on Ellie, these secondary characters and their challenges are also addressed in an authentic manner.

I highly recommend this book and will be adding it to my classroom library.

I LOVED this book! I can not say that loud, fast, or excitedly enough! Jamie Sumner has crafted a relatable, touching and eye opening novel. Ellie is just the perfect little MC! It's difficult to find books that feature a MC with a prominent disability, even more so to find it full of heart! With a cast of characters that are loveable and well rounded, Jamie takes us on a journey through Ellie's life, complete with her worrisome personality, her normal teen aged problems, and a best friend that is adorable to boot! The novel tackles hard subjects, both mental and physical, in a way that is both tactful and relatable to readers of any age. I really cannot rave enough about this book. For any one who feels alone, out of place, scared to start something new, or afraid to tackle an issue that is life changing - I suggest you read Ellie's story. She will brighten your day, warm your heart, and bring a sense of hope to you. 5 stars to Ellie, Jamie and Roll with It!

I already purchased this for our library's juvenile fiction collection. The main character shines through her diversity. In a time when books of diversity are being marketed to children and teens, this one hits the mark. Most children and even adults, do not understand the stages and challenges of cerebral palsy. I found this to be a great education on the topic while presenting a sweet heroine in the book.

Loved, loved, loved this book! Ellie is spunky, sarcastic, caring, observant - ultimately, she's a realistic tween. She struggles with many of the same difficulties, in school and out of school, with which the average tween struggles. She also happens to have cerebral palsy and requires a wheelchair.

The author does a great job of presenting Ellie as an admirable, realistic character. She mentions the struggles of wheelchair life, because that's a real part of her life, but this isn't primarily a book about a girl in a wheelchair. It's about a girl finding her way through the questions and difficulties of life - both her own personal struggles (friends, school, image, future) and those of her family (moving, divorce, absent father, grandfather with Alzheimer's). In addition to all this, she requires a wheelchair and lots of medical appointments.

My only complaint (& my reason for 4 instead of 5 stars) is that the ending is abrupt. It works alright, because it does tie-up loose ends. Given how much concern & thought Ellie had about some of the struggles throughout the book, I'd have liked to see her reflect and have some conversations on the conclusions. However, this is still a fabulous middle grade chapter book, and I highly recommend it!

Any book that starts with a Great British Bake-Off reference is okay with me. Ellie has dreams of being a world class chef. She loves to bake and cook and when she and her mom move in with her grandparents she knows she will have an opportunity to enter a baking contest. But her grandfather's increasing forgetfulness and her battles with CF can sometimes get in the way. Can her family find a way to adjust to their new normal and can she find a perfect recipe?
This was a solid, feel good book. Some drama and I felt the ending was a bit rushed but good overall.

I was given an advanced readers copy of this book compliments of #netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is a delight! Ellie is an outspoken teenager in a wheelchair. She's comfortable at her school because she's always gone there and everyone accepts her as she is. Then, her mom and her have to move to help take care of her grandfather who has Alzheimer's. They move in with her grandparents in a small trailer home on the wrong side of the tracks. Ellie is left to navigate making new friends and class wars at her new school. Filled with love, friendship and Ellie baking. You won't want to miss it. #disability #aspirations #alzheimers #newkid

As the mother of a daughter with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair, I have to say that it's so-o-o refreshing to read a book in which the main character is a wheelchair user. More importantly, though, Ellie, the star of ROLL WITH IT is a fully-fleshed out kid with sass and substance. "Anybody who sees a girl in a wheelchair thinks she's going to be sunshine and cuddles," Ellie says at one point, but sometimes, in realistic fashion, she wishes that she could walk. Her parents are divorced, and she has some resentment toward her father, who has remarried and is an aspiring politician. Her dad "doesn't do hospitals or sickness...which explains the whole leaving us," she says. She sometimes drools on purpose in his presence just to repulse him.

She also has a passion for baking, and her letters to food editors are sprinkled throughout the novel. Baking becomes a way for her to connect with her classmates and the community. "Food," as Ellie says, "is the universal hello."

I had a lot of sympathy for Ellie's mom, as she tried to advocate for her daughter and take care of her aging parents, including a father with Alzheimer's. And I could also appreciate Ellie's desire to do without an aide, and be more independent.

Although this novel has a lot of sweetness, it doesn't sugarcoat real-life situations. I loved reading ROLL WITH IT. Now I'm off to bake a pie.

A beautiful read. If you like Wonder than you will love Roll with It.

Ellie is an inspiration that will stick with you. I couldn’t put this book down and I was hooked from page one. Yes, at times Ellie could be a tad whiny and smart-mouthed but what pre-teen isn’t and sometimes she had a right to be whiny. It made her character seem believable.

I definitely will be buying a copy or five for some local elementary schools in my area. I want to share Ellie’s story with as many as I can.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher, Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing, through NetGalley. Any and all opinions expressed in the above review are entirely my own.

Loved that there was a diverse main character that’s not normally represented in mainstream writing. Ellie is relatable and provides a realistic look into living with a wheelchair.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Roll With It is a middle grade novel that centers around Ellie, a feisty tween who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair to get around. When her grandfather's Alzheimer's gets worse, Ellie and her mother relocate to help her grandparents. While CP is certainly a large part of Ellie's life, she doesn't let it define her, and the author of this book doesn't let it define her either; this book focuses on much more than Ellie's disability, including friendship problems, family struggles, and Ellie's love of baking.

She had me at British Baking Show. Ellie is an aspiring baker and is inspired by Mary Berry, Julia Child and other baking greats. She is also confined to a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy and lives with her divorced mother. The two of them move to a trailer in Oklahoma to help Mema take care of grandpa after his dementia symptoms cause a couple of dangerous accidents. Now she is the new kid in a wheelchair at a small middle school coming from the wrong side of town -- the trailer park. Spunky Ellie may be down, but she is not out. With the help of her two new friends, Coralee and Bert (short for Robert), she will learn the joys of not being normal and discovering who she really is. This book reveals much about living with a disability without being just about that. Ellie's voice is authentic and will provide a much needed window for middle grade kids to living with CP. There is something for everyone in here: baking, therapy, mini golf, pageantry, fishing, and more. As promised on the cover, there is most definitely PIE! This is most definitely one of my favorite new juvenile titles in 2019. Enjoy.

Thank you, thank you to Simon and Schuster Children's and NetGalley for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Twelve-year-old Ellie loves to bake. She writes letters to famous chefs and cookbook authors, asking questions to make her own art better. She's frustrated by her overprotective mom, having to go to the bathroom at school with the help of an aide, and her father, who exists in theory, not so much in practice. Ellie also has cerebral palsy, or CP, which keeps her wheelchair-bound, but never out of the game. After her grandfather, who has dementia, drives his car into a local supermarket, Ellie's mom packs up and heads to Eufala, Oklahoma, to live with and help out. Ellie's grandmother is thrilled to have her family for a visit, but makes it clear that she's not putting her husband into a home. Ellie starts school and a new life in Oklahoma, befriending Coralee and Bert; schoolmates who have their own eccentric flairs, and taking on a school that isn't ready for Ellie.

Inspired by her son, Roll With It is author Jamie Sumner's first novel, and with it, she has given us a main character who is upbeat, smart, funny, and darned independent. She's a tween on the verge of teenhood, coping with adolescent feelings and frustrations on top of family worries, like her grandfather's increasing dementia, concern about her grandmother, and a father that she's disappointed in and hurt by. On top of that, she has the struggles that come with being in a school ill-equipped to work with her needs, and being the new kid in the middle of a school year. How does she cope? She lets you know what's going on! Her voice is strong and clear, in her fantastic tweenage snark and honesty. Her friends Coralee and Bert have fully-realized backstories, giving them life beyond being Ellie's friends in the background. Ellie's grandparents and mother emerge as realistic, three-dimensional characters with big concerns of their own: family health, an absent spouse, bills, bills, bills. 

A story about fitting in and standing out, following a dream and making your own way, Ellie is a character you want to cheer for and your kids will want to hang out with. Hand this to any of your realistic fiction readers, especially the kids that love Aven's adventures in Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling or Sharon Draper's Out of My Mind; for your baking aficionados, give to readers who loved Jessie Janowitz's The Doughnut Fix/The Doughnut King, and Anna Meriano's Love Sugar Magic books. Talk this up to your teacher visitors, and suggest they take a look at it (I'm always ready to push good Summer Reading list ideas).

Roll With It has starred reviews from Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly. Check out Jamie Sumner's author webpage, where you can sign up to receive her newsletter and download a free discussion guide.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Though Ellie was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth, she was fiercely independent. However, after her grandfather's dementia progressed, she and her mother moved to Oklahoma, in order to care for him. As if being the new kid wasn't hard enough, she was also the only one in a wheelchair in a town lacking accessibility. Despite those drawbacks, Ellie began to settle in, and was thinking this could be her new home. All she had to do was convince her mother.

What a wonderful and heartwarming story! I adored Ellie, her wry personality, and her passion for cooking. After the move, she could have opted to have a pity party, but instead, she found things to be positive about. She was making friends, she was getting stronger with the help of her very capable gym teacher (Hutch), and she was looking forward to winning the annual pie baking contest. I loved Ellie's attitude, and respected, that her biggest qualm was not that she had CP, but that she had lost a lot of her independence, due to the lack of accessibility. Can you blame a pre-teen for just wanting to be just like everyone else?

Ellie was by far the star of this story, but she had a great supporting cast of characters. Her friends, Cora Lee and Bert were wonderfully unique and interesting, but I really loved them, because of what incredible friends they were. They embraced Ellie and accepted her, when she had previously spent most of her school life on the outside looking in. It was fabulous to see her form these bonds, and I loved their plan to help her "stay forever".

I also thought Ellie and her mom shared a special relationship. Her father had left, when she was young, so it was really only her and her mom. Mom was a bit overprotective, but it came from a place of love, and I think Sumner did a beautiful job showing how difficult it was for her mother to strike that right balance of mothering with the autonomy a child Ellie's age craved.

I can promise you, that at the end of this book, you will have a warm heart, a smile on your face, and a craving for baked goods.

This wonderful story is about Ellie who is 12. She uses a wheelchair because she has cerebral palsy and although the story taught me a lot about what it's like to live with CP, that's not the real story-the real story is all the other things around Ellie-her grandpa who is suffering with Alzheimers, her mom who wants to help her dad AND Ellie, Ellie's new friends-Coralee and Bert, who each have their own dramas as well as Ellie trying to be a good daughter and granddaughter AND find her own place in the world. This is a terrific story and Ellie is an amazing character. I loved this one.

I received an electronic ARC from Simon and Schuster Publishers through NetGalley.
Sumner has created a strong main character who happens to have CP. She's not perfect and she shares her frustrations in coping with life in a wheelchair. Her family is also dealing with divorce, an uninvolved father and her grandfather's Alzheimer's progression. Her mom is a clear representation of the stresses of the middle (squeezed) generation. She takes a leave of absence and moves them to Oklahoma to help take care of her dad.
Ellie finds two friends who are also "misfits" at the new school in Oklahoma. I love how Sumner shares typical friend issues for all three.
Themes of learning to be okay with who you are and pushing boundaries.

“Roll With It” by Jamie Sumner is a very real book. Real in the sense that it talks about a lot of big issues that middle school kids face. The cliques, the have’s and the have not’s, who lives where, how to handle the first day at a new school. And, Ellie is going through all of it in her wheelchair.

When Ellie and her Mom need to move to help care for her Grandparents, Ellie cannot believe she has to start over at a new school. And, she has to convince her Mom she isn’t a baby anymore. After a terrible first day that leaves Ellie in tears, is there any hope?

At home, Ellie is determined to be a professional baker. She loves it and she’s really good at it! Determined to make her dream come true she practices all the time.

When her Mom plans a new pick up and drop off plan with neighbors, Ellie is not happy, but sometimes new arrangements work out. Whoever would have thought that after a rough start, Ellie might never want to leave?

Heartwarming, a family filled with love, a kid with courage, friends and big dreams make this book a winner! –Green Gables Book Reviews

5 stars! Your Middle School Age kids will love this book!

This book is written at a middle school level but the content and the characters voices could easily make this a novel for older teens. It is similar to Wonder but written with a little more young adult content.
The main character deals with her parents divorce, moving schools, making new friends, and grandparents growing older. This is all done while she lives life with a wheelchair. The dialogues are witty, raw, and smart.
I would love to see her grow up and face life's challenges as a high school student. Maybe there is sequel in the works?