Pippa Park Raises Her Game

by Erin Yun

Overview

“Pippa is a magnetic heroine, funny and good-hearted.”—Booklist

Readers will cheer on Pippa Park in this wonderful middle school book about friendships, bullying, crushes, and family. In this relatable story, Pippa reinvents herself and discovers who she really is on and off the basketball court. Perfect for fans of The Baby-Sitters Club, Kelly Yang's Front Desk Series and Maizy Chen's Last Chance.

Life is full of great expectations for Korean American Pippa Park. It seems like everyone, from her family to the other kids at school, has a plan for how her life should look.

When Pippa gets a mysterious basketball scholarship to Lakeview Private, she jumps at the chance to reinvent herself. At school, Pippa juggles old and new friends, a crush, and the pressure to get As and score points while keeping her past and family’s laundromat a secret from her elite new classmates.

But when Pippa begins to receive a string of hateful, anonymous messages via social media, her carefully built persona is threatened. As things spiral out of control, Pippa wonders if she can keep her old and new lives separate, or if she should even try.

GREAT FOR READERS AGES 9–12
Now an AR Quiz!
Bonus Content in the Book includes:
Discussion Questions, Author Q&A, and Korean Language Glossary with Pronunciation Guide?

Perfect for the School Classroom or Library!
Complimentary Guides: AAPI Discussion and Anti-Racism Resource & Common Core Language Arts Guide on our website
Tween Book Club with printable activities on our website
Includes word games, make-your-own-book playlist, fortune teller, and discussion questions
The Series is a Contemporary Reimagining of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781944020286
Publisher:	Fabled Films Press
Publication date:	04/13/2021
Series:	Pippa Park , #1
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	79,685
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Erin Yun grew up in Frisco, Texas. She received her BA in English from New York University and is currently pursuing her Masters in Creative Writing at Cambridge. Erin is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She developed the Pippa Park Author Program, an interactive writing workshop, which she has conducted in person and virtually at schools, libraries, and bookstores. Yes, she used to play basketball as a middle grader!

Editorial Reviews

This charming and fast-paced middle-grade novel highlights family, friendship, and identity... Readers will relate to Pippa's struggles adjusting to life at her new school...Tweens will appreciate how Pippa learns to embrace her roots and her family's unconditional love.

Common Sense Media

Pippa is a magnetic heroine, funny and good-hearted, and young readers will relate as she makes one honest mistake after another in an effort to fit in. A nice balancing act between sports action, middle-school drama, and the struggles of an underprivileged immigrant family that will appeal to a wide audience.

Booklist

This charming and fast-paced middle-grade novel highlights family, friendship, and identity... Readers will relate to Pippa's struggles adjusting to life at her new school...Tweens will appreciate how Pippa learns to embrace her roots and her family's unconditional love.”—Common Sense Media

“Pippa is a magnetic heroine, funny and good-hearted, and young readers will relate as she makes one honest mistake after another in an effort to fit in. A nice balancing act between sports action, middle-school drama, and the struggles of an underprivileged immigrant family that will appeal to a wide audience.”—Booklist

“An empowering celebration of identity, friendship, and embracing one’s roots... Yun writes of Korean-American family life with heartwarming, authentic detail... Tall, athletic, and brash, she is an unforced subversion of female Asian-American stereotypes even as she confronts challenges unique to Asian-American teens.”—Publishers Weekly

“In this reimagining of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, familiar themes and predictability are offset by the depiction of Korean culture and language, which add texture and depth to the narrative. Readers will sympathize with this likable heroine as she struggles to succeed. VERDICT An enjoyable read with a buoyant contemporary twist on an old classic.”—School Library Journal

“This is a highly engaging and relevant title for schools that takes up issues of social class, ethnic identity, and the venture of staying true to oneself which will lend itself well to educators and parents looking to support growth in today's tweens. Highly Recommended.”—School Library Connection

“In Erin Yun’s enchanting Pippa Park Raises Her Game, a girl starts a new school and tries to reinvent her image... an exciting middle grade novel about middle school struggles and feeling out of place.”—Foreword Reviews

From the Publisher

12/09/2019

An empowering celebration of identity, friendship, and embracing one’s roots, Yun’s loose reimagining of Great Expectations follows a first-generation Korean-American girl learning to navigate her new life at an elite private school. When Pippa Park’s older sister, her caretaker, forces her to quit her Massachusetts public school’s basketball team to concentrate on her grades, her basketball dreams seem all but dead. Yet an unexpected lifeline appears when the elite Lakeview School suddenly offers her a basketball scholarship—with the condition that she maintain a 3.0 GPA. Spinning a web of half-truths about her background to fit in with wealthy new friends, Pippa loses sight of her grades, working-class family roots, and true friendships. #OwnVoices author Yun writes of Korean-American family life with heartwarming, authentic detail. The predictability of certain plot points, such as Pippa’s mysterious acceptance into Lakeview and the eventual exposure of her lies, is balanced by her cheerful charm. Tall, athletic, and brash, she is an unforced subversion of female Asian-American stereotypes even as she confronts challenges unique to Asian-American teens. A subplot involving her aloof math tutor and his musical older brother adds another layer to the story, revealing Pippa’s capacity for empathy and the value of family in her world. Ages 10–12. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

In Erin Yun’s enchanting Pippa Park Raises Her Game, a girl starts a new school and tries to reinvent her image... an exciting middle grade novel about middle school struggles and feeling out of place.

Foreword Reviews

This is a highly engaging and relevant title for schools that takes up issues of social class, ethnic identity, and the venture of staying true to oneself which will lend itself well to educators and parents looking to support growth in today's tweens. Highly Recommended.

School Library Connection

11/01/2019

Gr 5–7—Korean American seventh-grader Pippa Park is a basketball star at her middle school in Victoria, MA, but she struggles with math and the demands of her older sister and guardian Mina. When she unexpectedly receives a scholarship to a prestigious private school, she is faced with new challenges: reinventing herself to fit in with her wealthy classmates, maintaining her grades to keep her scholarship, performing on the court to help secure a long-overdue win for the school, and working at Mina's laundromat. Complicating things is her crush on the headmaster's son and math tutor Elliot, whose strange behavior and mysterious household fascinate and unnerve her. Pippa also feels guilt for avoiding her best friend Buddy, fear over anonymous blog posts targeting her, and worry over her mother who has been in an auto accident in Korea. Ultimately, after some big mistakes, Pippa must find her own solutions and make things right. In this reimagining of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, familiar themes and predictability are offset by the depiction of Korean culture and language, which add texture and depth to the narrative. Readers will sympathize with this likable heroine as she struggles to succeed. VERDICT An enjoyable read with a buoyant contemporary twist on an old classic. Recommended for young fans of modern retellings.—Marie Orlando, formerly at Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY

School Library Journal