Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

PTA is feeding our teachers today for SEPs, folks–wish us luck! We’re doing burrito bowls, and I spent part of my morning making two pans of bars so that I was sure of having more than enough of my ‘dessert for 24’ assignment. (When it comes to dessert, I always assume that ‘just enough’ is actually ‘not nearly enough’. I know not everyone shares my level of sweet tooth, but I’m a ‘better safe than sorry’ girl about food in general anyway.) Both recipes are easy, so I also loaded and ran the dishwasher, put in a load of wash, AND finished reading one of the graphic novels on our ‘Battle of the Books’ list so I could review it and pass it on today. (My 10-year-old will be over the moon!)

We Are Big Time is a joint effort, having been written and illustrated by two different women, and it’s a lovely one. Inspired by the true story of an Islamic school’s girls’ varsity basketball team, it features Aliya, whose family has just moved from Florida to Wisconsin to be closer to her paternal grandparents. She isn’t excited by the move, but when she discovers that her Islamic school has a girls basketball team, she finds what may just become a community for herself–if she can figure out how to balance basketball with school and family. That isn’t always easy, of course, but working hard does eventually yield its promised rewards.

I thoroughly enjoyed We Are Big Time. It touches on the day to day difficulties of being on a team while portraying a loving family and focusing on being ‘more than the score;’ it’s also blessedly devoid of even realistic high school drama. The treatment of the playoff game surprised me a bit, but I suspect that the true story is much closer to the book’s ending than the sort of ending one sees in all kinds of sports movies. If my son were into graphic novels–or any of my daughters into basketball, rather than art and dance–you’d probably find this book under my Christmas tree this year; as it is, I find myself wondering who I could give it to as a gift.

Ideas?