BEA MULLINS TAKES A SHOT

A 12-year-old faces her fears of failure and rejection when she joins the girls’ ice hockey team at her middle school.

After her embarrassing play at basketball camp two summers ago, white Canadian seventh grader Bea Mullins swore she would never play a team sport again. But a flood in the gym cancels class for the semester, and students are urged to take up extracurricular sports instead. At the insistence of her best (and only) friend, Celia Chan, Bea reluctantly agrees to sign up for the girls’ hockey team, which will be disqualified if they don’t find enough players to meet league regulations. Bea is convinced everyone on the team will blame her if they lose, especially Gabriela Vega Martínez, one of the co-founders, who dreams of playing professionally. But Bea soon discovers that most of her teammates are beginners, too, and Gabi may even want to be her friend. As Bea finds her footing on the ice, she must confront her own self-doubt, deal with challenges in her friendships, navigate new same-sex romantic feelings, and learn how to support her team. Although the premise is engaging, the story and the message of inclusion suffer from weak characterization, particularly in the cast of secondary characters, who are developed only at a surface level. Ambitious, driven, overachieving Chinese Canadian Celia isn’t well rounded enough as a personality to move beyond stereotype, while Colombian immigrant Gabi feels developed primarily to teach a message.

A pass that never reaches the goal.