MG Review: Patina

Patina by Jason Reynolds

Published: August 29th, 2017 by Antheneum Books for Young Readers/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, which are Simon and Schuster imprints.
Genre: Contemporary YA
Binding: ARC
Page Count: 192
Part of a series? This is the second book in the Track series, but it's not like a direct sequel with the same narrator. I know there'll be at least one more released in 2018 and I'm betting there will be a fourth one. I wanted to read it without reading Ghost to see if how it worked, and I think it works just fine as a standalone. I really do want to read more of the series though!
Got via: It was sent to me for review consideration.
Amazon / Book Depository / Indiebound

Summary (from goodreads): Patina, or Patty, runs like a flash. She runs for many reasons—to escape the taunts from the kids at the fancy-schmancy new school she’s been sent to since she and her little sister had to stop living with their mom.

She runs from the reason WHY she’s not able to live with her “real” mom any more: her mom has The Sugar, and Patty is terrified that the disease that took her mom’s legs will one day take her away forever. So Patty’s also running for her mom, who can’t. But can you ever really run away from any of this?

As the stress builds up, it’s building up a pretty bad attitude as well. Coach won’t tolerate bad attitude. No day, no way. And now he wants Patty to run relay…where you have to depend on other people? How’s she going to do THAT?

Review: I really liked this. It's such a good middle grade book. The art of building an amazing middle grade book is different than building a great young adult book, and this nails it. This is one of those books I just think about kids reading and know that it'll mean so much to them. The voice in this is absolutely amazing, there are so many amazing characters, and I enjoyed it so much. I had a couple small issues, but overall nothing major and I'm super excited about everyone else getting to read this one.

Plot Talk: This is pretty slice of life, and it does slice of life very well. The plot is basically Patty training for her next track meet after coming in second at the last one. It's not just about winning, though, obviously, as it's also about bonding with her teammates, and learning that her races aren't just about whether or not she wins. It's one of those plots that sounds like nothing when I say it because I'm terrible at describing plot, but it's very, very satisfying to read.

Characters: I swear, I'm going to make that list one day of girl characters who have the weight of the world (and their siblings) on their shoulders. Soledad Madrid, Dicey Tillerman, Delphine Gaither... I really like this type of character, and Patty is a great addition to my growing list. Seriously I'm gonna write a blog post or something one day. And one thing I especially liked about that is while she's very close to her sister, with her sister definitely looking to her for guidance, and Patty taking on some responsibilities that are a little more adult, she's not expected to actually be an adult. When things get really bad, the adults in her life step in and say, no, this isn't okay.

Those adult characters were really awesome. I really loved how much of the book took the time to flesh out how important the adults in Patty's life are, in the various roles they play. You know how sometimes in MG you get an adult character who's very much a "character" and they kind of take over the book? The adults in this book feel like people, and they're in the book to support the young characters, not to be the center of the splotlight.

One thing I thought was absolutely wonderful was how many women and girls are in this book. A lot of the book is about Patty's relationships with other female characters, be it girls at school, the girls on her track team, or the women in her family. It's something that's almost subtle, honestly, but it's really neat to see, especially from a male author.

PG-13 stuff: There's some talk of death, as Patty lost her father a few years ago and thinks about that while also worrying about her mom. Her aunt and sister are also in a car accident at one point, and her aunt is injured. I also think some of the diabetes stuff could be upsetting - I'll go more into that next.

Cons, complaints, bad stuff, etc.: My biggest complaint is that there's not enough disctinction between "not managing your already existing diabetes is a bad thing" and "eating a lot of sugar can make you diabetic" and I think especially in a middle grade book that separation is incredibly important. The book basically says that after Patty's dad died, her mom started eating a lot, and then diabetes came and took her legs.

Eating a lot of sugar doesn't cause diabetes. This is a myth and a dangerous one. While Patty's mother's weight is never mentioned, this is a myth that especially hurts fat people especially because of the idea that a) all fat people are diabetic/will be diabetic, b) diabetes is something you did to yourself c) of course you're fat because you ate a lot of sugary stuff and d) diabetes is essentially a punishment for being fat/eating.

I'm going to link to one two three sources including a couple that actually say some things that I don't completely agree with because, you know, fairness or something, and also link to a couple posts I encourage you to read after those. One about fatness and diabetes, and one about poverty's link to diabetes. I'm linking to a blog instead of directly to the sources talked about as I want you to think about these things in relation to the people commenting, you know? Also I don't want to go through every comment and link, but there's a lot of good stuff being said.

I just really wish this had been handled a little better because I loved the rest of the book so much, and I also wonder how kids with diabetes will see that? Are they going to blame themselves for having a disease? Diabetes is very genetic also, and it's very all or nothing about getting it. There's no balanced talk about managing diabetes instead of it just being this thing to be afraid of. I think the reason this bugs me so much is that it's not nuanced. Patty's mother having Type I diabetes, say, and not managing it well in her grief could honestly have been a great subversion of this. And other than the book lacking queer people beyond a mention of some people having two moms and not really having fat people, this is literally my only complaint.

Everything else being so amazing really just made that stand out. (There was also a thing that made me wonder how much medical research had been done? Patty's aunt would probably not be eating right before going for a planned surgery with general anesthetic. You generally can't eat before surgery. ARC obviously, so things are subject to change, but I noticed it.)

Cover comments: I quite like the cover. It's simple without erasing what Patty looks like (because obviously that's so, so important). Since Ghost's cover is yellow, I'm kinda hoping the next one is red so that it keeps going as a rainbow... because I'm a dork and rainbow spines would be neat.

Conclusion: Seriously it looks like my entire review is complaint now, but honestly, I really, really liked this. There is so much depth and nuance to almost everything besides the diabetes representation and I think kids are going to love it. Something that was really interesting is that this isn't as heavy of a book as it could be. There's not a big tragic Newberry death or something. It's all about Patty and her growth. I highly recommend this one. Four out of five roses - half a star taken off solely for the diabetes thing.



Other notes:

- I'm writing this before it's out and I cannot find a single review from a black reviewer. Almost every single review I can find is from white people. I'm trying to give it away on twitter to an ownvoices reviewer! We'll see how that goes.

- But if you know any reviews from ownvoices reviewers, please let me know! I'll add links to them.

Okay, that's it for now!

Peace and cookies,
Laina