Return to Brinkley Middle School with Tryouts by @sarahsaxart
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Alexandra aka Al loves playing baseball with her older brothers. Baseball, not softball. When her middle school team has tryouts, Al’s friend Sammy convinces her to tryout for the team, even though it’s all-boys. The coach, surprisingly, is all for it and Al makes a great addition to the team, but when the tenth championship is on the line, will Al be able to step up to the plate?
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I loved Picture Day and this was such a great follow up. Lots of different perspectives can be included in this MG series and I loved the representation of a female on a male team. This should be common practice. This book releases May 7.

CW: misogyny

The cover and title caught my eye. I had just read another graphic novel about tryouts, so I wanted to see if they were similar. Well they were not. Baseball is my most favorite sport. I love how they have a girl who loves the game and just wants to play. This was a great story, that showed how kids can get along. It doesn’t matter what gender they are to love something, be it baseball or sewing. The them for me is “you do you.” Great book.

Very cute graphic novel that’s the second book in the series. Great illustrations and a diverse cast of characters.
Al joins the boy’s baseball team and it doesn’t turn out the way she expected.

What a fun graphic novel touching on girls playing on traditionally boys sports teams but really talking about teamwork and how you have to work hard to be part of a team, not just make yourself better for you!

Tryouts was a fun and engaging book that focuses on many modern day issues. The author engages the reader in them without it being off putting or soapbox-esc. While I lost track of the pacing at one point, I really enjoyed the overall message of the book.

I loved this graphic novel, the story is great and inspiring, the characters are very funny and charismatic, the illustrations are quite cute and the general message is very good.

There's just something so wonderful about reading a book as an adult and realizing how much you would have loved it as a kid. It's like a book-ish time machine reading experience. That's totally was this was. Alexandra (Al) has aspirations of playing for her middle school baseball team, and her friends encourage her to go for it even though it's always been boys only. She makes the team, and she's met with a variety of challenges and frustrations as she does. There were also delightful subplots about the mascot and just finding where you fit in a school. I absolutely adored this one. This graphic novel series just captures middle school feels (that adults can connect with, too) in such a perfect way! Thanks to NetGalley for the early look at this May 2024 release!