Twelve-year-old Astrid has always done everything with her best friend, Nicole. So, when Astrid signs up for Roller Derby Camp, she assumes Nicole will too. But Nicole signs up for dance camp with a new friend instead, and so begins the toughest summer of Astrid’s life.

There are bumps and bruises as Astrid learns who she is without Nicole and what it takes to be a strong, tough roller girl.

This is an excellent girl-empowerment book that every girl should read. Roller Derby girls are definitely tough and maybe a bit crazy to go out and slam into each other on skates for fun.

The best thing about Roller Derby (in my opinion) are the creative derby names. Here are a few of my favorite derby names featured in this story:

Rainbow Bite

Slay Miserables

Napoleon Blownapart

Scream Soda

The Blast Unicorn

Little Bonebreaker

And the best one: the author, a bona fide roller girl herself, reveals her secret identity –

Winnie the Pow!

Another point this story makes is that some friendships don’t last. You make friends when you’re young, and when you get older your interests change, and sometimes you go your separate ways. It’s sad, but that’s just the way things are sometimes.

Does anyone remember my review of ‘The Secret Tree’ by Natalie Standiford? In that story, Minty loved roller derby and was practicing her skating at the beginning of the story. Minty was so cute trying to come up with a tough Roller Derby name to go with her name but could only come up with ‘Minty Fresh,’ which to me sounds cool. If you like Minty, you’ll love Astrid.

And if you like this graphic novel, check out the movie ‘Monster High: Friday Night Frights.’

This week’s Weird but True Fact about Roller Skates

The man credited with inventing roller skates crashed into a mirror while showing off his new invention.