THE FIFTH QUARTER

Practice makes perfect, or at least better—both in basketball and in friendship.

Lori may be only good enough on the boards to play in her fourth grade team’s informal “fifth quarter” warmups, but her determination to improve burns steadily enough to prompt signing up for both youth league and an intensive girls basketball camp at the local college. While chronicling plenty of realistically aggressive game and practice action in the tight but cleanly drawn panels, Dawson hands his protagonist a different sort of challenge too, as Lori discovers that Elyse, a likewise unskilled teammate she had pegged as a friend stealer, is actually an admirer who has been inspired by Lori’s focus. In a thematically similar side plot, Lori’s own mom nervously announces that she’s going to run for town council. By the time fifth grade tryouts roll around, the work both girls have put into their games and their relationship bears fruit—and if the political campaign doesn’t end so happily, still Lori expresses stout pride that her mom had the courage to try. That sentiment along with a more experienced player’s “If you want to win you can’t be scared you’ll lose” make up the main message in this first of a planned duology. The bright, saturated color palette and characters’ expressive faces complement this engaging, fast-paced story. Racially ambiguous Lori and her parents have black hair and light skin; the cast is visibly diverse.

Nothing but net.