I AM EXTRAORDINARY

In NBA superstar Curry’s latest, a young Black girl worries that her hearing aids will prevent her from joining her new school’s soccer team.

Though Zoe’s practiced all summer, she’s nervous. What if she’s not good enough? And if she puts her hair up to play, kids will see her hearing aids. Fearing the others won’t accept her, Zoe removes her aids before a game. But playing without them proves difficult, and Zoe flees, lamenting that she’ll “never just be ordinary.” But fellow player Mila, who wears protective glasses, asks, “Who wants to be ordinary…when you can be EXTRAORDINARY!” Mila and her friends Marley and Brooklyn call Zoe’s attention to other athletes, such as a baseball player who uses a wheelchair and a runner with a prosthetic leg: “Can ordinary people do that?” Marley explains that Zoe’s dedication, and her hearing aids, make her extraordinary. Buoyed, Zoe—wearing her hearing aids—makes the team, and together they win the championship game. Author Curry appears on the last page and explains that kids must “find the courage and strength to overcome” challenges. Though it’s refreshing that Zoe’s disability isn’t her defining quality, the use of the word inspirational—a term bearing patronizing connotations for many disabled people—to describe her story risks muddying this point. Still, occasionally heavy-handed speech-balloon dialogue notwithstanding, Zoe’s teammates’ accepting attitudes are reassuring, and Bowers’ bright cartoon illustrations are engaging. Mila is pale-skinned, Brooklyn is brown-skinned, and Marley presents Asian.

Earnest and encouraging.