Middle school hasn\u2019t been easy for Izzy. Her twin, Ari, chose to attend a prestigious performing arts academy, leaving Izzy to navigate Kagan Middle School on her own. Ari has countless after-school commitments, practices her violin constantly, and, in a move that breaks Izzy\u2019s heart, decides she wants her own room. Izzy, stinging from the separation, seeks something to do with her sister-free time. When she hears an announcement for cheerleading auditions, her friends Jojo, Leah, and Ryan, the self-appointed Team Awkward, convince her to try out. Her improvised routine proves a bit goofy for the main squad, but the coach offers her a spot on mascot duty. Soon, Izzy finds herself sporting a cardinal costume and delighting her classmates with her comedic dance moves. Though Izzy enjoys making people happy, she still feels less-than when considering her sister\u2019s accomplishments and goes to dramatic lengths to remain anonymous under her costume. Izzy\u2019s interior emotional struggle is compelling: When your sibling\u2019s success seems prodigious, how much do your own achievements matter? Secondary characters are well developed, too: Izzy has Team Awkward, empathetic parents, and, ultimately, her sister, who is experiencing problems of her own, to help her celebrate her worth. Izzy presents white and comes from a two-dad family with Jewish and Catholic backgrounds.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Middle school hasn\u2019t been easy for Izzy. Her twin, Ari, chose to attend a prestigious performing arts academy, leaving Izzy to navigate Kagan Middle School on her own. Ari has countless after-school commitments, practices her violin constantly, and, in a move that breaks Izzy\u2019s heart, decides she wants her own room. Izzy, stinging from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}