To say that Bea isn't a fan of playing a team sport is putting it mildly. However, her school had to cancel PE, and now all of the children need to sign up for an after-school sports activity in lieu of PE. Bea's best friend Cecilia loves team sports, and the girls sign up for hockey.

Bea just focuses on surviving at first. Her heart isn't in the game. But her teammates are delightful, and as friendships form, especially with one particular girl, Bea realizes how much the team means to her around the time she realizes they may not be able to continue playing.

This sweet, funny, delightful middle grades book is one I would have loved to read as a child. It would have made a huge, positive difference in my life. I highly recommend this for anyone who enjoys reading about friendships, family, and self-discovery.

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC of this book!

I love this book, BEA MULLINS TAKES A SHOT. I wish I’d had it when I was a teenager. It’s one of those wonderful novels you lose yourself in on a rainy afternoon, and then you can’t put it down. It’s a smart and funny story of friendship, crushes, hockey, reluctant team sports, siblings, and so much more with terrific characters who feel so authentic.

I love Bea's anxiety and stress, along with her worries and overthinking, which feel utterly real and flashback-inducing to my teen years. I hope this book gets into the hands of a slew of readers who will love this book.

It's a beautiful story.

Go Bea Mullins and Emily Deibert! What a team!

This middle grade read about an inexperienced girl learning to play hockey is SO freaking cute. When Bea Mullins signs up for her middle school's first ever girl's hockey team, it's largely because it will count as a gym credit. Fully believing she is no good at sports (and further wanting to desperately hide from the spot light), Bea soon learns what it means to play on a team that cares about one another. She also develops her first crush, which is written about so sweetly, with ALL the middle school cringe! This book is perfect for young readers, but as an adult, there was plenty here to enjoy!

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC.

I love middle grade stories and this one of a young girl joining an ice hockey time whilst admittedly not being the best and having to fight for so much more than she’s given. This story is sweet and hopeful and joyful and made me so happy that kids will have reminders like this book every day that the most important thing you can ever do is try. Even if you’re bad at it. Be bad and try. And it’ll still end up being more than enough.

Everyone should be reading more middle grade is all I'm saying. This was a book about confronting anxiety and the fear of failing and putting yourself out there for the sake of your friends. It was also about hockey.

I'll add also normally I'm not a fan of a heavy reliance on social media and modern technology in novels in general but especially middle grade. HOWEVER, I do think in this case it really suited the theme and overall message. It's hard being a human in the world knowing that we exist in a time of 0 sense and 0 privacy, the idea of being a tween in a world with smart phones constantly recording? Horrifying.

In short: cute read, okay balance of plot vs the gentle romance B plot, hockey was understandable to someone who has never seen a single game before.

This was extremely cute, a great middle-grade sports graphic novel, with lovely art! Bea Mullins is easy to root for.

I really enjoyed it. I really love women, women in sports, queer people, and a supportive group of people. This book has all of those in abundance. I recommend this to everyone who is having a hard time and is in need of a pick me up and sense of belonging. We all need something that brightens our spirit and gives us hope. (and jealousy of what could be)

This was absolutely delightful, I had the cheesiest grin on my face the entire time I was reading.

Bea Mullins Takes a Shot has everything I love: sapphics, sports, friendships, and personal growth. Bea is a skittish middle schooler whose best friend forces her to join their school’s new ice hockey team with her. Bea grew up watching hockey with her dad and brother, but she soon learns that watching and playing are two very different things. As she slowly learns how to play this new sport, and dies from embarrassment over her inexperience, she begins to develop a crush on one of her teammates.

Bea is constantly plagued with thoughts that she isn’t good enough, that she’s a burden, and that she’s being mocked by those around her. Most of the plot’s conflict arose from this insecurity and fear, so seeing Bea slowly gain confidence in herself was very satisfying. I love when character growth is woven in with athletic improvement. It was really refreshing to see how large of an impact hockey had on Bea. Her love for the sport, and the joy and confidence it instilled in her, brought to life my own experiences with playing sports growing up. Finding a sense of belonging on a team and the strong bonds that form from such camaraderie.

I’ve made it a personal goal of mine to read more queer middle grade because it was something I didn’t have access to as a kid. There is something so pure and sweet about witnessing queer kids experience first love like their straight peers. Gabi and Bea’s relationship was so adorable and was largely what put such a wide smile on my face while reading. I really loved their connection and how hockey brought them closer. Cecilia was another great character and her sharp contrast to Bea made their friendship so real.

I thought this was a wonderful story that holds so much heart and joy. I loved the championing of women’s sports. I think this book will have such a positive impact on young readers and hopefully inspire many to step out of their comfort zone and try something new.

this was a cute and fun read, i love queer sports books, and making this one a middle grade about a first crush was adorable and perfect!

Bea is not a sports fan. She has a habit of stumbling over her feet, and compared to her brother Tyler she is not winning any awards. Others always make fun of her if she tries playing on a team. But then when the school gym is under renovation and the kids have to join teams until further notice, There aren't many options, but Bea's friend Celia decides they're doing hockey. The girls' hockey team needs members to fill the roster and raise necessary funds. That doesn't help. Bea is convinced that she will become the laughingstock of the team, something that seems to prove true when videos appear online showing her fumbles during games. But she soon crushes on Gabi, a team member that wants to play seriously. And maybe, just maybe, she's having fun. When the team needs one last financial push to save its semester, Bea may need to step up to the plate and shed her fear about being embarrassed.
This is a fun story about friendship, first crushes, and sports. We get some hard truths about how women in sports aren't regarded, and a Wayne Gretzky reference that has sadly become dated. I was not a great sports player or someone that won medals. In fact, I was one of two siblings that didn't attend a sports team regularly. So I understood this story completely. And that is why I love it.

This is what every contemporary middle grade book should be. Bea is a delightfully compelling protagonist, and her journey through this book—learning to love hockey, dealing with her first crush—kept me, a full-grown adult, turning the pages.

loved this queer hockey book SO VERY MUCH 🥹.

And I don't even like hockey!! 🤣 That's how you know it's good. Truly my favorite middle grade I've read so far this year.

Give this one to the kids in your life who love sports books, the ones who root for stories about underdogs, the kids who get the warm fuzzies over stories about misfit players coming together as a Team™️.

And most of all? Give this one to the queer girls searching for happy endings & unwavering support 🌈.

Children's chapter books get on the hockey train. I love to see young female characters doing non-traditional girl things. This is maybe a bit overly long, but I liked the insertion of text messages to break up the narration. The cover art is so cute it makes me wish this was a graphic novel.

Thank you for the ARC. I will purchase for my library.

Eminently charming, Bea Mullins Takes a Shot is about the eponymous girl, Bea, who is pressed into joining her middle school hockey team after her school gym floods. Almost a medication on good sportsmanship, as much as it is an exploration of young queer romance, as she falls for the team's star player.

What a cute and heartfelt story.

The biggest flaw in this book was that it needed some editing. The biggest struggle Bea faced was her extreme insecurity. While this is a delicate age, it got old quick just how insecure she was and how she took it out on everyone else.

The storyline was cute and I loved the diversity within the novel with background characters. Since its middle grade, it was nice to see young girls coming into their own and starting to realize things aren’t the same with women’s sports as men’s.

For fans of the Mighty Ducks and the PWHL, Bea Mullins Takes a Shot is a wholesome read about a young girl gaining the confidence to play hockey and learns what it's like to be a part of a team.

Bea Mullins is terrible at sports. When she played basketball, her teammates iced her out because she would never throw the ball to them. Therefore, Bea believes there is no sport she will ever be good at.

When the gymnasium at her school floods, each student is forced to replace P.E. with a team sport. Of course, Bea would like to do anything else. But with some convincing, she and her best friend, Celia join the girl’s hockey team where Bea learns how to play hockey with a team that appreciates her and shows good sportsmanship toward one another. Bea also meets Gabi, an eighth grader who she starts crushing on.

This middle grade debut was stellar! It exceeded my expectations as a hockey fan. I loved the little jabs to the Toronto Maple Leafs fans and references to Gretzky’s famous quote, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” I especially enjoyed the focus on women’s sports and sharing facts about the disparity between the NHL and PWHL which Bea realizes in real time as she sees how the girl’s team is treated at her school versus the boys. The boys get new equipment and uniforms plus a huge crowd whereas the girls have to fundraise to get enough ice time.

I liked seeing how social media was incorporated as the girls brainstorm marketing tactics to bring in more audience members and raise money to keep their team alive.

I loved how normalized queerness was in this book. Gabi and Bea have a little fling and Celia has two moms who are lesbian and bisexual.

The hockey was written very well, too. The author has prior experience playing on a girl’s hockey team similar to Bea. But I appreciated how detailed she wrote each step of Bea’s hockey training, making it easy to understand and visualize what she was doing on the ice.


I highly recommend this to any hockey lovers!

In BEA MULLINS TAKES A SHOT, a reluctant Bea joins the school hockey team alongside her best friend Celia. Bea’s not athletic and she’s scared of failing. The team struggles to come together at first, but Bea’s skills grow, as do her feelings for one of her teammates. When it looks like the team won’t have the funds to survive, Bea realizes how much the team and hockey have come to mean to her and steps up with a plan to save the team.

As a hockey fan, I loved the representation of women’s hockey in the book and how the author addressed the inequities between men’s and women’s athletics in a natural way throughout the course of the book. This is much more than a sports book, though, and will appeal to those who aren’t familiar with hockey, too. Friendships, first crushes, family, and fear of failure are all common middle school experiences that Bea navigates, at some times better than others. She’s a likeable character and shows growth during the story beyond just her improvement on the ice. This story of sports and middle school struggles will be a winner with readers!

As I was reading Bea Mullins, the book released, so I finished up by listening to the audiobook through my local library (and the audio was lovely as well!) I’m not a huge sports person in general, but I loved Bea’s character and found her relatable. This is a well-crafted story, and it shines a light on the challenges and misogyny women’s sports face. I really enjoyed the read!

Emily Deibert's debut book is all about finding confidence in yourself and on a team! This book is great for both sports enthusiast and those unfamiliar with sports. I am from the latter group, but this book and the discussion of sports didn't feel unapproachable or overwhelming. Instead, I felt very connected with the characters and, like Bea, found myself excited about hockey and team sports in general. I also loved that Emily Deibert spent time discussing women's hockey - both the history and the future. The characters themselves were well written and felt very real. I loved Bea's relationship with Celia and Gaby and her learning to navigate friendships and crushes

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun read with a satisfying conclusion: Bea, the hero, saves the day and gets the girl. But the book also does a good job of showing Bea's journey; she becomes a hero through trial and error. Bea's immense embarrassment at virtually every social interaction (something I feel was a tad overdone), threatens her relationship with friends, teammates, and a potential romantic connection. As an adult (who was a socially-oblivious kid), this was sometimes frustrating to read, but younger middle-grade readers will likely feel the stakes are real. And the book's lesson that being true to oneself and creating authentic connections trump momentary embarrassment is a noble one.

The hockey info is also well done—it's obvious a hockey fan wrote it. There seems to be a dearth of middle-grade sports fiction right now, especially any aimed at girls, so this fills a gap. Overall, a good book with good pacing and key points on friendship, first crushes, trying new things, and not taking yourself too seriously. 3.5/5