My Own Spin

In this fun novel-in-verse Arlo finds he wants to do his own thing and decides he wants to play table tennis. Dad takes him to a club where Arlo thought he was good until he saw how quickly his games were over. Gus offers some tips. Arlo’s older sis, Zoe, tells him it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, just try your best. When his sister signs him up for a one day table tennis camp, Arlo learns so much and meets new friends Niko and Cora, as Arlo begins to get better Niko says let’s enter a tournament together.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rosen Publishing Group, West 44 Books, and David Aro for the opportunity to read My Own Spin in exchange for an honest review.

My Own Spin is a Hi-lo novel-in-verse about a boy who wants to make it big at table tennis.

At twelve years old, Arlo doesn't want to be just a basketball-playing shadow of his older sister. Instead, he wants to find something he can truly call his own. At home, he is great at Ping Pong, so he decides he will make his stand with Table Tennis. He finds out very quickly is is a bit different than just playing with friends and family at home.

With friends by his side, urging him on in their club and challenging each other, Arlo finds that there are many young Table Tennis players who take the sport very seriously and want to make it big. 

With a message of family, friendship, and following one's dreams, My Own Spin is a great sports novel for a middle grade audience. The table tennis idea is intriguing, but it also feels like I have seen or read something very similar. The writing craft is excellent, but the characters and how they approach their conflicts falls a bit flat compared to other book by the same publisher.

Overall, it is a book I still enjoyed, but it doesn't have quite the same impact with its message the way some of the other books in the genre have. still a super fun read and I will certainly recommend it to a middle school audience.

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

Arlo lives in his basketball star sisters shadow, never seeming as good or important as her. Everyone loves her and jumps hoops for her, but as she moves away for college he leans into his passion for table tennis finding he could do it professionally, but training and gaining confidence in himself and the sport is hard.

This was really interesting I knew nothing about table tennis, I didn’t even know it was a thing at all. It was very interesting learning a little about this sport through the character playing it, it sounded very confusing and intense though, but it was good to find a different sport get used within this story.

I liked that as the story progressed Arlo eventually found he could shine like his sister, that though his sister seems like it all comes naturally and easily to her it doesn’t, she had to actually train and work really hard and that the games don’t always go her way no matter how hard she tries to get them to be. It helped him to up his games when he learned about that.

I liked this book, it’s a verse book which I always enjoy, I loved that the balls were bouncing around in each page that’s was funny to see. I liked that Arlo had a good character progression, that he went from playing first for fun to playing professionally, I like that he made friends within the sport and made a team out of it. It was a really fun and different read.