Don't Break the Balance Beam!

Description: Kenzie's super strength makes her a super tumbler. But it causes all sorts of problems on the balance beam. If she doesn't learn to control her strength, all of her teammates will be teasing her.

Brief description: Jessica Gunderson grew up in the small town of Washburn, North Dakota. She has a bachelor's degree from the University of North Dakota and an MFA in Creative Writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato. She has written more than one hundred books for young readers. Her book President Lincoln's Killer and the America He Left Behind won a 2018 Eureka! Nonfiction Children's Book Silver Award. She currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Review Quotes: Jessica attends a special school for gifted athletes. Her particular ability lies in her super strength: her leg power allows her to fly into the air when she does flips, handsprings, and cartwheels. Her problem is controlling her strength, and she is horribly embarrassed in front of a big audience when she pushes off so hard into a back handspring that she breaks the balance beam. Her teammates jeer at her, except for her cheerleader friend, who remembers when she jumped so high in a pep rally that she got stuck in the basketball hoop. In a predictable close, Jessica works hard and triumphs at last. Told in brief chapters with spacious type, the drama of being humiliated will grab the clumsy as well as the athletic. The drawings on every page feature exaggerated characters with big, cartoonish eyes, but they capture both the incredible physical feats and the inner turmoil with subtle body language. An accessible entry in the new Sports Illustrated Kids: Victory School Superstars series.-- "Booklist"