Why Read The Tryout post by the Hobbit. This post contains affiliate links, you can find out more on our policies page or in the disclaimer at the bottom of the blog.
Know Before You Read
Book: The Tryout
Author: Christina Soontornvat
Illustrator: Joanna Cacao
Length: 265 pages
Age suggested: 10+
Release Date: March 8, 2022
Genre: Biography, graphic novel, school stories
Themes: Friendship, Growing up, self-acceptance, racism
Warnings: bullying
Quick The Tryout Summary
The Tryout is a graphic novel rendition of the author’s remembrances of her seventh-grade year in school. While the novel is centered around tryouts for the cheerleading squad, it covers a lot of topics that will be familiar to children of this age and will bring back memories for adults
Why Read The Tryout – Review
In this autobiographical tale, Christina moves with her family from Dallas to a small Texas town in 3rd grade. There she meets Megan, who becomes her best friend. Four years later she’s beginning middle school. The book chronicles her 7th grade year. It has ups and it has downs. The downs include subtle and overt racism (Christina is Asian American). One of the humorous yet sad incidents in the early part of the novel is the day she starts 7th grade and her teachers make little effort to correctly pronounce her last name. The ups include her friendship with Megan and finding new friends.
On the first day of school they are immediately drawn to the 8th grade cheerleaders. She and Megan are both somewhat in awe of them and see being a cheerleader as a road to acceptance. Both work extremely hard and discover things about themselves and about the other during the process of trying out to be a cheerleader.
The book ends with a note from the author and some pictures of her and her family during the time the novel describes. One of the things I found to be compelling in this story was the development of the friendship between she and Megan. They have been best friends for four years, and yet during this year their interests began to go in different directions. The question becomes, can they continue a deep friendship even though their interests have begun diverging? The book handles the racism and the bullying well and shows how easy it is for kids to slip into doing this.
The book also has some interesting aspects of Thai culture scattered throughout. Christina has a extremely supportive family and extended family, One of the things that is evident in this story is how important that family support is for her. I think any child going through the 6th to 8th grade years would benefit from reading this.
One other thing that I enjoyed is that Christina loves fantasy and science fiction and makes references to Tolkien and Star Trek. So how can you not but like a main character who does that?
Favorite The Tryout Quotes
“You know, my sister always eats the cookie with the fortune inside. She chews wisely…”
“Showing respect and having good manners is really important.”
“I’m not waiting around for someone to tell us we deserve to be here. We do, no matter what they think.”
The Tryout Quotes
The Tryout Discussion Questions and Topics:
1. Which character(s) did you relate to the most and the least in this story?
2. Have you and any of your friends pursued different interests? Has this affected your relationship, and if so, how?
3. “Every ending is a new beginning.” How does this apply in the book? do you agree or disagree with this?
4. How do Christina and her friends feel about being popular? Does this change over the course of the novel? How important is popularity to you?
5. If you are reading this as a parent, this would be a good opportunity to discuss your school experiences with your child/children. If you are reading as a student, would it be useful to write down some experiences so you can share them someday with your children.
Thanks for reading our ‘Why Read The Tryout’ Post. Check out our related content:
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