LIFE, LOVE, AND THE PURSUIT OF FREE THROWS

This new comedy from Rallison focuses on two best friends with crushes on the same boy. High-school freshmen Josie and Cami are basketball players. Josie is a natural talent, while Cami struggles with the game she loves. Cami pledges to help Josie get attention from handsome Ethan in return for basketball tips, but when Ethan begins calling Cami instead, Josie retaliates. Suspense abounds. Is the girls’ friendship destroyed? Can either survive life with their weird science-project partners? And especially, can the girls ever achieve the ultimate goal of being “in”? Rallison again demonstrates a crisp, witty comic voice. Both main characters speak with the same voice, however, which can cause some confusion. Nevertheless, by focusing on events of enormous import to adolescent girls and by keeping the laughs coming, she again delivers a high-school romp that will give readers plenty of fun. (Fiction. 12-16)