I grew up reading the old Gymnasts series by Elizabeth Levy, so when I saw this pop up I thought I’d give it a try as well, even though I was warned it was written in verse which I don’t usually care for. In this case though it worked quite well, just felt like the idle musings and angsts of a typical 80s teenage gymnast, and managed to give enough story that it was interesting to follow. A super quick read.

Thanks to NetGalley for sending Alyson Shelton’s Get a Grip. I wasn’t familiar with the hi-lo format prior, and I think it’s a pretty great idea to engage readers. As a former gymnast I loved the heart in this book. It reconnected me to a time when I felt so similarly to the main character, Kelly. This was such a great read. I especially enjoyed revisiting some of the eighties phrases of yore. Thank you for writing this, and I will recommend it to my old gym buddies!

Enjoyed this novel -in-verse about gymnastics, grief, and family. Kelly’s brother, Michael, dies while camping with his brother Todd and Kelly knows her family is changing due to his death. Kelly starts at new gym and meets Angie. They both love vaulting. When it’s time for the competition team there are five spots and Angie makes it. Kelly is on the list with four others and has more six more practices to make the team. Will she make the team? Angie tells Kelly when her father died she wrote letters to him, and Kelly decides to write to Michael which seems to help her deal with the sadness she still feels.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I wanted to read Get A Grip due to the author, Alyson Shelton, of whose work I am a fan. I wasn't fully sure what to expect, although I had a feeling it would be an emotional and "real" read and I was not disappointed. The format works really well for the story Alyson wants to tell; even though the writing is sparse, it feels natural and I was still immersed in Kelly's (the protagonist) world, in fact, I though the realisation of Kelly's thoughts and emotions in so few words and actions were really powerful and impactful. It spoke so much to me. Kelly is experiencing such deep grief after the loss of her brother, where are the words? And the words that are shared on the page mean something. I found reading this a special experience and I think it would be a wonderful resource for young people (and maybe everyone) experiencing grief.

Thank you so much to Rosen Publishing/ West 44 Books and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Kelly a gymnast who is desperate to get to the highest competitive team so she can one day be in the Olympics. She suddenly and unexpectedly loses her brother Michael and struggles to get a grip on her life without him. Stuck between living her own life, trying not to forget him, and doing what she loves most in the world. But everyone around her doesn’t seem to care and she struggles more each day with his loss.

What a sad but incredibly beautiful story, wow it was so full of deep emotion. I didn’t expect a story about gymnastic to be so sad and full of heartache and loss but it certainly was and it was written so well that you could feel that pain of our protagonist constantly.

I really loved the gymnastic aspect of the story and how she got herself to a better gym of higher stature and that she made friends with the talented girls that trained there so quickly. She had her struggles not getting her dreams instantly but as time goes on she does manage to accept that and love what she’s been given. She constantly worked hard to achieve her dreams and her goal, with her new friends supporting her all the way.

The sadness of losing her brother and then her family just acting like nothing had happened was so heartbreaking, she didn’t understand why no one seemed to care, her other brother was nothing but mean, her dad had zero emotion about it at all. I loved though that she found a way to still include her brother in her life even after he had gone.

This was one of the most beautiful verse books, it had so much heart to it, so full of heartbreak and lots of love too. How much she actually loved him and how much he was missed. I loved this book so much even though it was really sad, it was so perfectly written and showed a realistic look at what grief can look like.

Kelly's life is a happy one, filled with gymnastics, supportive parents, a brother she's close to and a brother she tolerates. But when her brother Michael, the one she's close to, dies in an accident, everything is turned upside-down.

This is a novel in verse, written for a hi-lo audience—which is to say, high interest level for teenagers who have relatively low reading skills. Think complex themes (in this case, grief and the complexities of friendship) but simpler language. I'm not the target audience here, but I like seeing what's out there (and also...I like gymnastics stories).

This one flies by. I like the mix of themes, and that the book is set in the 80s; it was a different world for gymnastics then, and also a different world in terms of how quickly you could contact other people and so on. Kelly can't just look up her new gymnastics teammates on Instagram; she has to get to know them slowly.

At times I would have liked certain plot points to have a bit more room to breathe. We never do find out what exactly happened to Michael, for example, and when another character gets engaged his father has to ask who the fiancée is—can you imagine a parent you live with (and have a reasonable relationship with) not knowing who you might be getting married to? Maybe that would have felt more normal in the 80s (though i have my doubts), but to my 2020s eyes it's anything but.

All in all, though, I think younger readers will appreciate this one—it'll be an especially good one for school libraries the next time the summer Olympics rolls around.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

***I received a free E-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review***

This was a wonderful story about life after loss.

Beautifully written, the author did a fantastic job of putting us in Kelly's shoes as she learned how to navigate her changing family and friendship dynamics when faced with the loss of her beloved brother.

A fantastic verse story for reluctant readers.

A fantastic novel in verse. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Kelly and her family. The story has so much emotion, in a real and relatable way. I loved the structure of the story how the novel in verse format is used to convey such loss and complex joy. As a Hi/lo novel it does a great job of including complicated emotions and grief in a more accessible format.

I liked this book and thought it was good... however, I would like it to be a bit longer and for some characters to be explored in more depth (e.g. Todd)
I would recommend this book but would not buy for myself.

Thank you to NetGalley, West 44 Books, Rosen Publishing Group, and Alyson Shelton for the opportunity to read Get a Grip in exchange for an honest review.

Get a Grip is a HiLo  novel written in a poetic verse style. Written for a teen audience, the novel takes place in 1984 and follows Kelly, a highschooler obsessed with gymnastics. She will never miss watching  the Summer Olympics, and aims to join an elite gym to be just like her favorite Olympic gymnast.

When tragedy strikes, and one of her brothers dies, she strives even more to push herself to be the best gymnast she can be, hoping to fixate on her passion to deter her grief. Grief is a powerful emotion, but luckily, she is able to make a new friend at the gym. Her grief causes discord among herself, her friends, and her family, her internal conflict and battle with the emotion causing her to react to certain situations in a more forceful way.

When Kelly aims for a spot on the elite gym team, she learns that using her grief as a driving force for her goals is not the route to take.

This novel is an accessible testament to family, friendship, personal goals, and dealing with grief. Of course the loss of a family member will cause grief, and everyone grieves in their own way. A lesson here is understanding that an individual's dealing with grief and their approach should be respected, but also be identified when it begins to branch out and affect others. The family dynamic is strained with the loss of the middle child, as the older brother tends to have snide remarks for Kelly, even attesting that she wish he had died instead (of course not true). This is likely his own way of dealing with the grief and has something to do with how they were as a family prior to the death and how he is choosing to handle the loss.

The novel also explores friendship and personal goals. Friendship is important to Kelly, but so is gymnastics. She waylays her friends when it comes to ensuring she is practicing enough at the gym. Her friends also don't seem to connect with or understand the struggle Kelly is going through with the loss of her brother. This causes a bitterness that friends should be able to talk about and work through. Kelly also makes a new friend at the gym, and the like-mindedness seems like a great aspect to a budding friendship--until that friendship gets in the way of her gymnastics goals. Goals are great, but one should be careful about obsession and how much of their life is being put forth in the pursuit if there seems to be a lack of balance.

A great story, well-written, engaging, and offers a plethora of different relatable aspects for teen readers.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

Alyson Shelton’s debut verse novel, Get a Grip, is stirring, engaging, and emotionally true. Within its first pages, MC Kelly loses her favorite person when her brother Michael dies suddenly. Her grief is raw and immediate but there’s no room for it in her emotionally shut down family, nor with her best friend who’d rather focus on her budding romance. What saves Kelly—her passion and talent for gymnastics—also adds guilt to her grief. As her athletic dreams begin to unfold into reality, her excitement upends her. How can she enjoy her forward-moving life when Michael’s life is over? Shelton has done an amazing thing in this spare, beautiful book. She’s written about complicated grief in an uncomplicated way teens are sure to relate to and be deeply moved by.

It's the summer of 1984 when we open the pages of Alyson Shelton's "Get a Grip," an unusually, I'll say it, gripping hi-lo novel written in verse format that combines Shelton's usual gift for honest storytelling with a strong social impact.

For those unaware, "Hi-Lo" publishing stands for High-Interest, Low-Readability. It's an increasingly popular branch of publishing that creates meaningful storytelling for older children, teens, and even adults who read below their age level. While these books have far too often also tackled simplified subject matter with which most teens and adults can't identify, publishers like West 44 Books, an imprint of Enslow Publishing, have realized that it is possible, and preferable, to create age-appropriate stories using language that is more accessible.

"Get a Grip" gets hi-lo publishing absolutely right and exactly where it ought to be.

In "Get a Grip," competitive gymnast Kelly is a seemingly ordinary teenager whose summer plans include watching every single moment of gymnastics in the Summer Olympics.

Kelly's excitement shatters when her beloved brother Michael dies.

Suddenly, nothing makes sense anymore and not even a long-desired invitation to join an elite gym can help Kelly make sense of life without her brother. Before long, Kelly immerses herself in gym life. It's both an obsession and a distraction from grief, from friends who don't understand, from parents who won't talk about it, and from her own chaotic feelings.

I've been familiar with Alyson Shelton's work for quite some time having first reviewed her award-winning 2006 feature film "Eve of Understanding," a film that also finds its narrative foundation in the complexities of grief.

Since that 2006 introduction to Shelton, our paths have periodically crossed creatively and I've been a guest poet on her acclaimed Instagram Live series inspired by George Ella Lyon’s poem, Where I’m From, where she’s hosted over 250 writers.

With "Get a Grip," her first teen novel, Shelton tells a meaningful and relatable story in a way that's accessible without compromising on the quality of storytelling and while also trusting the dignity and intelligence of her target reader.

And yes, just because your reading skills are a bit lower that doesn't mean you're not intelligent. Intelligence is expressed in a myriad of ways, and Shelton seems to get that.

The magic of "Get a Grip" is that it not only brings an important subject to readers, that of grief, in an accessible way but it also manages to make grief itself more identifiable and accessible. For those who struggle to express the language of grief, "Get a Grip" is here as a sort of introductory primer to the various ways that grief shows up in our lives from relationship changes to stress and anxiety to difficulty with focus and a whole lot more.

I found Shelton's approach using verse completely and utterly engaging. It adds a rhythm to the storytelling that amplifies the language and the emotions. I'll openly confess it. I cried more than once in "Get a Grip," identifying both with the story (though this paraplegic, wheelchair-using amputee will never be seen on a balance beam) and the lovely character of Kelly.

There will be some who will lament Shelton's decision to not give more time to diving deeper into Michael, however, it's a decision that resonates with me because so much of grief is unexplained. By leaving this narrative thread more open, Shelton leaves open the greater possibility of teens relating to the characters and getting in touch with their own grief.

I've always loved Shelton's work, but I'm tempted to say that "Get a Grip" is my favorite effort yet owing to its meaningful subject matter and impact on those who are more vulnerable and at-risk.

"Get a Grip" isn't just about gymnastics. It's about life and loss, grief and the vitality of human connection. It's a lovely and meaningful hi-lo effort destined to stand as both a wonderfully written novel in verse, and it will also find its place in therapeutic worlds for those with reading difficulties and a hard time sharing life's most difficult experiences.

Look, this isn't an "easy read" in that Shelton decides to share all the pain of losing a sibling. That isn't something I can understand at all, but having read this, I know what it was like for the hero, and narrator of this book, Kelly. There is a moment near the end that is a gut punch, but also awesome. What a brilliant move by Shelton and her publishers to include this image. I'm not crying, you're crying.

Alyson Shelton...you are rad.

As a fan of Alyson Shelton’s work I have been waiting for “Get a Grip” to be published. I was not familiar with this format of Hi/Lo written in verse, but it suited this story in a beautiful way. This novel is easy to read despite the complex topics. It has something for both parents and young adults, especially those looking to connect and navigate emotions surrounding grief and growing up.

I'm here today to share an awesome new novel-in-verse by @byalysonshelton called Get A Grip!

This Historical Fiction YA is set in 1984 and features a teenage gymnast who is struggling with the loss of her older brother. Her whole family is reeling from the impact of this loss and Kelly is struggling to connect with her friends at school. When she joins a new gym she finds a new friend and begins to see that she can work through this difficult time in her life while aspiring to become the gymnast and young woman she wants to be. This is a Hi-Lo book, meaning that the content is of high interest but the writing is at an accessible level for readers who may struggle. I really enjoyed it and felt that it is a great fit for readers who are interested in gymnastics, like historical fictions and are looking for a fun new read that is fairly short and not too taxing on the reader! I love that the author captured a bit of teen romance, but with a very G-rated approach, as well as exploring grief, challenges with friendships, and the commitments and challenges related to elite level athletics for young women. I would say this book could possibly be categorized a bit younger in the middle grade range, while it might be a bit too mature (only because of the high school setting not because of the content) for my 3/4 students, I think older middle grade readers would enjoy this book and it would still be appropriate for them. I'd recommend this book for readers in the 11-17 age range! It comes out in mid-October so definitely pre-order now!

Thanks to @netgalley and the publisher @west44books for giving me the chance to read and review this excellent book!

Get a Grip moved me and had me rooting for protagonist Kelly from the first few pages and the book absorbed me through to the end. This is a nuanced, thoughtful, and heartwarming story that addresses grief, coping mechanisms in families, and how we learn to accept ourselves and others as best we can. Author Alyson Shelton captures teen-aged life with empathy and insight. The prose form is engaging and serves the narrative well. I'm so happy I had the opportunity to read this new title.

This novel is an absolute delight, a really refreshing take on grief and mourning as seen through the eyes of a teenage girl. Kelly is a gymnast dealing with average teenage pressures - cute boys, friendship woes, moving from her old gym to begin training elite gymnastics at the most prestigious gym in her state. She's scared she won't be able to compete against the other gymnasts, and that her friends will be upset she has less time for them with her training schedule. But all of that pales in comparison when her family gets a phone call one summer evening. Her half-brother, Michael, has died in a tragic accident.

I adored how this story explored Kelly's grief. It felt so real, which was impressive as this is a novel written in verse. There isn't much room for elaborate description of emotions, but author Alyson Shelton managed to capture Kelly's devastation in the weeks after Michael's death. The succinct verses zero in on Kelly's life slowly falling apart. Her dedication to gymnastics is the only thing that gets her out of bed in the morning. Her friendships become fragile as she struggles to live with her grief while still committing to her training schedule.

Luckily, in gymnastics, she finds Angie - a fellow gymnast who has also grappled with grief. Their friendship is truly Kelly's salvation. The unwavering support was so beautiful, and it was so nice to see a novel about teenage girls being friends that lacks the catty, capricious clashes that are so common in YA fiction. Again, Alyson Shelton has used very little words to effectively create two three dimensional characters whose bond gets them through a difficult time.

The gymnastics is also very accurately depicted! I was expecting the book to gloss over many aspects of it, as non-gymnasts generally won't care and gymnasts are likely to pick apart any errors, but little details like Kelly's difficulties with bars and her love of vault and floor were so well described. The 1980s setting also was accurately depicted, with the correct gymnastics code, vault table, and the new spring floors being mentioned. I was so impressed by the research that was put into this part of the story, as many writers dealing with elite sports will try not to go into too much detail, but I found the level of detail here both enjoyable and reasonably accurate.

This book is a HiLo story, which means high interest, low readability - something it accomplishes very well! The text is engaging and the characters are relatable. Although it tackles some serious subjects, it is written in language that would be accessible to most readers who struggle with readability. The text is laid out on the page with plenty of space between both words and verses, encouraging readers to follow the text down the page. I imagine it will be very popular amongst teens who may have trouble reading denser paragraphs.

I read this book in a single sitting, and I cannot sing its praises enough. I look forward to acquiring a copy myself.

A super quick read written in verse (I flew through it in 45 minutes!) that ended up surprising me. I initially didn't think the novel-in-verse style would work for me, but it perfectly captures the disjointed feeling of intense grief - that phase where you're just going through the motions, missing parts of your day, nothing makes sense in the same way it used to and you're trying to figure out how to move forward. While the publisher's description feels a bit off compared to the actual story, it's a really moving YA book that could help teens process grief they might be struggling to understand.