• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2019 September #1
  *Starred Review* Sixteen-year-old Gravity Delgado is making her mark on the world of amateur women's boxing, with a Golden Gloves victory under her belt and undefeated status in the ring. Finding the Cops ‘n Kids boxing gym in Brooklyn was her salvation, quickly changing from a place where she could simply channel her anger at her drunk, abusive mom to Gravity's ticket to a better life with her kid brother, Ty. Now the Olympic trials for the 2016 games in Rio are approaching and Gravity is training hard to knock out any competition among her fellow Lightweights and secure a spot on the U.S. team. Deming's own background as a boxer, coach, and sports journalist comes through in vivid writing that slings sweat and pulls no punches. Fights and sparring matches are energetically relayed and exciting to follow, even for those unfamiliar with the sport. She also provides narrative variation by inserting accounts of fights and boxing news from a respected boxing blog that Gravity follows. Though fiercely passionate about boxing, Gravity's love for Ty is unrivaled, and their relationship is tenderly depicted. She also has her first bouts with sex and dating, which are realistically complicated and messy but always secondary to her Olympic dreams. Readers will want ringside seats for this gritty debut title from Christopher Myer's new Make Me a World imprint. Grades 9-12. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.

Sarah Deming assisted on the New York Times bestselling sports memoir Eat & Run and wrote for CNBC's 2012 Olympics coverage. She is an HBO Boxing insider, as well as a senior boxing correspondent for Stiff Jab. Her essays have appeared in the Threepenny Review, the Guardian, Penthouse Forum, the Washington Post, HuffPost, WNYC.com, and the Morning News, and have been noted in Best American Essays and Best American Sportswriting. She's been awarded a Pushcart Prize and a MacDowell Fellowship. Before becoming a writer, Sarah was a chef, a yoga teacher, and a Golden Gloves boxing champion. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Ethan Iverson, and works with young boxers at Atlas Cops and Kids. Learn more about Sarah at sarahdeming.typepad.com or on Twitter at @sarahdeming.