Mackel, Kathryn. Boost. New York, Dial Books, 2008. 248.

Boost, by Kathy Mackel, turns a simple story about playing basketball into a grabbing novel where Savvy Christopher’s favorite thing and entire reputation are in jeopardy. Thirteen-year-old Savvy lives and breathes basketball, playing any chance she gets. After moving across the country to a new home and school, to her, basketball is the all that she has left. Her older sister, Callie, is in the same place with cheer. Both girls soon realize that the teams they are on are much harder than they thought. They have to work extra hard doing whatever it will take to stay on track with the rest of the team.  That’s when Savvy gets accused of taking steroids to help boost her game. Since she isn’t allowed to play for the team anymore, her focus shifts to trying to find out how the pills got in her bag, which started the mess. Family, friends, coaches, opponents, and teammates- Savvy doesn’t know whom she can trust and who trusts her. Savvy has to work tirelessly to prove her innocence and get everything sorted out if she ever wants to play basketball again.

Boost made me keep on reading until the end, without ever having a boring part or a slow start. Mackel made the book easy to understand and gave a great picture of the characters and setting. It was written in first person point-of-view (from Savvy’s perspective), and the word choice made it sound like it was actually a teenager writing it. In my opinion, the best thing about this book was the author’s use of foreshadowing. It made the reader have to catch and remember every detail to predict what was going to happen next.  Overall, I enjoyed the book and would definitely encourage others to read it.  Since it is more of a mature topic, I would recommend more to teens than younger kids.  I think that it would appeal more to girls that are interested in basketball, but even with a basic understanding of the game, I still loved Boost.