ESCAPE ’56 | Kirkus Reviews

Eighth grader Josie Tomaselli is a runner, spurred on by her dad, who is now hospitalized.

Her coach, best friends, mom, and younger brother, Lucas, are also strong supporters. Josie’s parents are amicably divorced, and her family life is pretty good. Josie is not always confident, but she gets along well with outgoing Lucas. She’s starting to think about boys and gets drunk at a local fair with her friends. Always on her phone, Josie is attached to her special running playlist—her dad’s inspiration (the chapter headings reference the song titles). Nervous before every race, she depends on her lucky shorts, her “fast hair” (the French braids her mom gives her), her dad’s encouraging text messages, and her friends’ urging her to have “lady balls” to get through. At the beginning of the week covered in the book, Josie wins a race, finally getting to advance to the city finals. Running in the park, she meets the woman who starts the school races: Aurora Osborne, a former Olympian whose locs may cue her as Black in the otherwise predominantly White cast, gives Josie encouragement and recommends special drills. This approachable debut about contemporary middle school life deals honestly with Josie’s anxiety about her own abilities and her dad’s recurring lung cancer. There are occasional references to her Italian heritage, mostly centered around food.

A sensitively told story about parental illness interwoven with meaningful friendship and sports themes.
(author interview)
(Fiction. 12-14)