Spinning

Spinning
Tillie Walden
First Second, 2017 392 pages
Grades 8-Up
Graphic Novel

Young Tillie is a competitive ice skater. Her day begins at 4:00 am with private lessons. After a grueling school day it is onto synchronized team skating practice. The summer after fifth grade Tillie's family moves from New Jersey to Texas. The regiment continues, only now she must make new friends and break in with a new team. Texas is less competitive than New Jersey and the coaches are kinder, but the schedule is still unrelenting and the pressure intense. To make matters worse, Tillie becomes a target for the school bully. Her parents are less than involved and she must find her own way both in navigating social waters and those of the world of competitive skating. After feeling very much alone, Tillie develops a relationship with a girl from school and finally finds love and acceptance. When her girlfriend's mother discovers the true nature of the relationship, she forbids her daughter from seeing Tillie, forcing the loneliness and self-doubt to resurface. Relief comes in the form of weekly cello lessons, art class and the occasional win on the ice. After twelve years of constant pressure and exhaustion Tillie can take it no longer and makes a move to quit, but will she be able to walk away? And who really is she without skating?

Dance Moms, ice version, this book exposes the dark side of competitive ice skating. Admittingly, my favorite park of the winter Olympics is the ice skating and I watched it breathlessly this past month, loving every minute. Now it makes me feel dirty to think about it. To become a superstar in any chose field requires a certain amount of sacrifice. For ice skaters the career starts young, so training starts practically at birth. Walden demonstrates exactly how much determination and suffering is involved in being a contender. To further complicate Tillie's experience, her parents are not directly involved in the process, so she does not have an adult to help her navigate this tricky world. The other moms are nasty. Tillie manages to make friends with one girl, whose mom is kind to her, yet she realizes that the only thing she and this friend actually have in common is skating. Tillie must look inside herself to see if there is more to who she is. Beyond the skating story is a coming of age tale and learning to embrace and own a non-traditional sexual identity. The story is honestly and beautifully told. Although heart wrenching in places, readers will empathize with Tillie and cheer for her all the way. Walden's illustrations work with the text in conveying the emotions and plot of the tale. The artist primarily uses the color purple, adding yellow as emphasis, mostly for light or to add highlights or interest. It felt a little unrealistic that the parents would shell out so much money and bother to get Tillie to the rink so early every morning to never go to a competition, making me think that there is more to the story that Walden is leaving out (depression maybe?). It is also strange after investing in skating for so many years at such an extreme level that they let her just up and quit, but this is Tillie’s story, so I’ll let her tell it. It certainly made me feel less guilty about not being able to afford the time and money involved in skating when my younger daughter begged to have lessons. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and think readers will as well, especially graduates of Raina Telgemeier.