Book Review: Redwood and Ponytail by K.A. Holt

Redwood and Ponytail
by K.A. Holt (j Holt)

K.A. Holt came to Nebraska in 2018 to receive her Golden Sower Award for ‘House Arrest,’ a book about poverty and taking responsibility for a younger sibling in a hard time.

Her latest novel-in-verse is ‘Redwood and Ponytail,’ the story of two seventh grade girls from wildly different social circles who feel drawn together in a way they haven’t experienced before. As Holt explains in the Acknowledgements page at the end, this is the book she wished she could have read in middle school or high school: a story about girls discovering that they like girls.

Kate is a ponytailed cheerleader who is driven to be “the best” by a mother who likely has borderline personality disorder. When she fills in as the team’s falcon mascot, she finds unexpected joy in putting energy into being herself instead of going for cheer captain as her mom plans.

Tam is a “redwood tall” volleyball player who hangs with the goofballs and has a high-five for everyone, even if not everyone acknowledges her. This year, both girls are noticing each other, having lunch together, and starting to hold each other’s pinkies as they walk down the hall.

Stylistically, I appreciated the Greek chorus between chapters that acts as agents of foreshadowing and hype. The story opens at a moment of crisis near the end of the story that involves a fire, then we go back to the start of the school year. A refreshing difference from so many middle grade school stories is that peer bullying doesn’t figure strongly into this book.

‘Redwood and Ponytale’ is a fun, suspenseful read about self-discovery and self-assertion that’s just right for kids at the age where they start having crushes.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Maybe He Just Likes You by Barbara Dee, Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee, One True Way by Shannon Hitchcock, Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World, by Ashley Herring Blake or Hurricane Child, by Kacen Callender]

[ official Redwood and Ponytail page on the official K.A. Holt web site ]

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!