Patina, or Patty, runs like a flash. She runs for many reasons--to escape the taunts from the kids at the fancy-schmancy new school she's been sent to since she and her little sister had to stop living with their mom. She runs from the reason WHY she's not able to live with her "real" mom any more: her mom has The Sugar, and Patty is terrified that the disease that took her mom's legs will one day take her away forever. So Patty's also running for her mom, who can't. But can you ever really run away from any of this? As the stress builds up, it's building up a pretty bad attitude as well. Coach won't tolerate bad attitude. No day, no way. And now he wants Patty to run relay...where you have to depend on other people? How's she going to do THAT?--
A solid second in the "Track" series. I like Patina, I think her character is well developed in this book. Reynolds is particularly skilled at voice, and each character has their own individual voice which helps separate out their character and keeps this book well grounded in realism.
I also appreciate the tendency for the prose to be steeped in poetic flare. As a poet, Reynolds clearly writes his prose with poetry in his head, and it shows in the writing. I really enjoy the syntactic structure of his sentences and the rhythm he injects into Patina's narrative voice. I'm sure this book would make a great read-aloud for this very reason.
I'd recommend this to middle-grade readers who enjoy realistic fiction as well as books that include sports, though the sports aspect of this book is not the majority of the story (much of which centers more on family and friendship, as well as Patina's school life). The writing is good, the story is short and sweet, and it makes for a good addition in this series.
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