If you need a book that makes you think and makes you reevaluate your worldview, this is the book for you! This novel is told in alternating points of view of two overly ambitious high school senior cheerleaders who decide to take a stand during a football game by taking a knee in support and in solidarity with a major athlete who was peacefully protesting during the anthem. While the squad made an impulsive decision to kneel, it turned into a movement for a few games and there were real world consequences for their actions.

Eleanor just got cleared to cheer again after a nasty fall and a bad concussion. During her recovery, she meets and flirts with her school's star football player. Everything isn't sunshine and roses though when jealousy spikes between her and her best friend over who will be named team captain. Tensions run higher when the squad takes a knee and it impacts Three's (the football star's) prospects. Can Lennie lead her team to a National victory when there's national spotlights on her squad for taking a knee?

Chanel is the definition of over achiever. She has to keep up with her idolized older sister after all. When the team takes a knee, Chanel is in the spotlight because she posted it to social media and now she has a target on her back from the school's administration. Still wanting to take a stand, but not wanting to jeopardize her future prospects, Chanel turns to her sister, family and a new friend Marisol for insight and help. When one door closes, Chanel takes charge to open new ones.

What I loved most: a realistic view on dating in high school, ramifications and social injustice in the school system, the stress and pressure put upon athletes to perform at peak levels, Jewish representation

II was reading this and thoroughly enjoying it. So many interesting and strong points were set up. The protest, the consequences, Nelly’s ambition, Eleanor’s new leadership position, the wedge in their friendship, a romance with Three who was really against protesting. And then bam, nothing happens, all is forgotten.

I’m so upset with how this story ended. There wasn’t any character development, no big moments that wrap it up. Everything was DROPPED. Forgotten. So many good opportunities that were missed.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

I would include Why We Fly by Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal in my classroom library and recommend it to some students. I loved the other work of these authors, but this story wasn't my favorite. I appreciated the dual perspective throughout the story and the story ended in a realistic way instead of being tied nicely in a bow.l However, I think the characters were underdeveloped in this one and there were some missed opportunities throughout the book to provide more in the story.

Jones and Segal write two-fold: they create books teens love to read and they address the more difficult aspects of racism when it comes to 2010s+ high school experiences. This one dives into the world of cheerleading and succeeds in doing everything they aim to do. It's a book that needs to be made and needs to be read to help teens and adults alike understand the world around them better.

I purchased this book for my high school library. My students have enjoyed it. and it has circulated well.

3.5

These authors create really compelling stories and the things that happen in this book are awful and have happened to people. But besides the injustices and the bingeable nature of this book, I don't remember much of what happened and much of the characters after the fact.

Still a solid read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This, unfortunately, fell flat for me. I really enjoyed I'm Not Dying With You Tonight by the same authors, which was a really tight, propulsive read. This was not. It started off pretty strong but then went in too many different directions and I didn't feel connected to either protagonist.

This was an incredible story about an important and timely issue. While I'm not sure Leni truly understood where her Black counterparts' perspectives, this book did an excellent job of navigating a difficult subject.

I really wanted to like this book, it had been well recommended. Unfortunately, it did not keep me engaged. The characters were not very likeable and I have a hard time rooting for characters I do not like. I had a few of my students read it and none of them finished it.

So… I wanted to love this. I really did. I loved I’m Not Dying with You Tonight & was looking forward to the dual voice presentation again. This one was good, but it fell short for me. Maybe because in spite of the different concepts between the two, they were still similar & it meant I held them up for comparison. The relationships seemed stilted & inauthentic in this one. The plot and subplot were believable enough, but the didn’t weave together as seamlessly as they should. It was good. I have kids who will like it.

Excellent. This book is absolutely and utterly excellent and I wish every single person would read this. Thought revocing and beautifully written, this has become one of my favourites!

I really enjoyed this book and thought it was relevant to current discussions that teens have. I appreciated how religion was handled in this book, as I thought it was done very well.

Oof, this is a gut punch of a book, that tackles not only how racism affects high school athletes but also how relationships fade away as graduation and college loom nearer.

Eleanor "Leni" Greenberg and Chanel "Nelly" Irons are best friends and members of their high school's competitive cheerleading team. In the summer leading up to their senior year, Nelly is off at a prestigious cheer camp while Leni is stuck in their Georgia town, undergoing physical therapy in order to clear herself to get back to cheerleading after her second and more serious concussion. It's at PT that Leni runs into Three, the handsome school quarterback who's looking to break records in his senior year and get recruited by a top tier footballing school. His parents are notorious for shopping him around to scouts, after having more or less successfully done the same for his three older brothers.

After Leni offers to give Three a ride home, he asks her to start working out with him. Their workouts lead to an easy friendship and more. Nelly, on returning from cheer camp, is not pleased at what she sees as a distraction from the girls' plan to focus on cheer so they can both get into colleges with good business schools. Smart, ambitious Nelly has her sights on UPenn or Cornell. Leni's grades have gone down sharply since her concussions, but the girls are hoping that a good showing at the cheerleading nationals will make up for that. But when the more laidback Leni gets elected captain of the cheer squad over no-nonsense Nelly, a seemingly unshakable wedge is driven between the girls that could change their relationship forever.

Oh, man, I really felt for Nelly throughout this book, which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me. While I'm neither as ambitious or organized, I'm definitely as bossy, if only because I hate when groups waste time hemming and hawing over what they could be doing instead of actually doing (my take-charge attitude greatly irritates the passive-aggressive, ofc.) When Nelly's the only person singled out for punishment after the squad takes a knee to protest racism, I felt that personally. Furthermore, I loved how this book unabashedly points out how Black girls and women are the least protected segment of society, even with Nelly's amazing parents in her corner! Speaking of whom, I loled at the car scene towards the end of the book. Poor Nelly. But I'm glad they busted her before her recreational activities became the problem they were clearly starting to be.

Leni was also a sympathetic protagonist, and certainly more so than Three. I get that she wasn't technically his girlfriend, but Bull was way out of line in saying that she couldn't claim to be broken up with either. Idk, maybe that's young people for you, but IMO if someone doesn't want to be as intensely close as they used to be previously, whether in friendly or romantic fashion, that's a breakup. What I did appreciate about Leni's story -- besides the excellent and honestly quite frightening details of the aftermath of her concussions -- was how she learned both the difference between a movement and a moment, and how to be an accomplice instead of just an ally.

It did make me sad that <font color="#ffffff">Leni showed more interest in reconciling with Three than Nelly towards the end</font>, but in all honesty, I'm glad that everyone came out the other side of this a better person. The best YA literature, to me, is when kids fuck up but learn to do better. Why We Fly depicts all that and more, capturing perfectly the bittersweetness of senior year as kids strive to make the best of that springboard year to adulthood, while tackling also the very real issues of racism, sexism and privilege in America in a highly believable manner.

Why We Fly by Kimberly Jones & Gilly Segal was published October 5 2021 by Sourcebooks Fire and is available from all good booksellers, including <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/15382/9781492678922">Bookshop!</a>

The concept of this book (and the previous work from these two authors) was enough to make me want to read it, but it fell flat.

This duo of authors also worked together on I’m Not Dying with You Tonight, which received a lot of praise. I would recommend this book to somewhat more mature YA readers, because as you can tell from perusing the Goodreads reviews, some readers were left unsatisfied by the narrative arc, which was (intentionally) anticlimactic. However, this structure suited the content of the story quite well; the two main characters spend their senior year reflecting on a (somewhat impulsive) protest action from the fall football season, dealing with the consequences of that protest, and learning a lot about activism and how they can best work that into their lives going forward. Wrapped up in all that is conflict between the two best friends, a romantic plot for one of the two girls, and though it rang true for me and felt emotionally realistic, I can see where younger YA audiences might not relate so well because it does not have a “happy” ending necessarily. I would absolutely recommend it though! I love that the co-authorship dynamic has worked out so well for these women.

In Australia we don't have quite the same cheerleading or football culture as they do in US High Schools, but that's not to say that this book won't resonate with teens here. Yes the main characters are cheerleaders, and football stars, but the essence of the story is more universal. This is a story about that transitioning from high school to the wider world, and a time when teens start to follow their dreams, find their passion, question their futures and maybe their voice. Sometimes friendships can grow and change together, and sometimes they won't.

I kept waiting for something to happen but I’m nearly 20% in and I’m still bored. It’s not what I expected. I’m giving it 3 stars and the benefit of the doubt. There are too many books out there for me to continue reading something I’m not enjoying, but it’s not bad per se, just not for me.

A YA book on the lives of two friends, Eleanor and Chanel. The girls have been friends for life and remain close. It is the typical high school tale. Classes, sports, dating and the family mix. It was well written and you could see the characters develop but there was nothing new in the book. I gave it a three based totally on that - nothing out of the ordinary.

Loved this one, and the dual narrative in particular. The only miss for me is that it didn't delve much into WHY the athletes were kneeling. Feels like a teaching moment, missed. I'll still be adding this title to my library however, as I think it is a great jumping off point for parents and teachers to have further discussions.