The Flip Side

April 11, 2016
Johnson, an Olympic gold-medalist gymnast and memoirist (Winning Balance), segues into fiction with this YA debut. Sophomore Charlie Ryland, who’s contending for a spot on the U.S. women’s Olympic gymnastics team, is keeping her athletic life a secret from her classmates: “In order to maintain some semblance of normality in my life, I perform a balancing act.” That balance topples when she severely sprains her ankle while attending prom with her crush, against the wishes of her protective parents. The accident is doubly devastating, as it jeopardizes Charlie’s Olympic dreams and makes public her status as an elite gymnast. Writing with Sonnichsen (Red Butterfly), Johnson offers crisp accounts of Charlie’s grueling gymnastic training and physical and mental fortitude, while also credibly conveying her anguish at maintaining dual identities and her remorse at the hurt that her deceptions cause. Though there’s little doubt that Charlie will stick the landing, so to speak, in the novel’s exhilarating finale, readers will be drawn into her passionate devotion to both spheres of her life. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jennifer Keene, Octagon.