Nothing Better Than Gym Friends (Perfect Balance Gymnastics Series Book 2)

My gymnast daughter really enjoyed this book and looking forward to reading the next one.

The second installment of the Perfect Balance Gymnastics series features Savannah, the youngest member of the Level 3 team, who is in second grade. Savannah and her teammates are about to attend their very first competition meet, and I thought the depiction of nervousness at a new experience was spot on. As the shortest member of her team, Savannah has to lead them every time they march to a new apparatus. I can remember being mortified as a kid when a teacher spontaneously asked me to lead something I wasn't prepared to do. What if I did it wrong? And Savannah is feeling these nerves on top of having performance jitters, especially on her beam routine. As this is her first real meet, it made sense that she had a lot of questions and wasn't sure exactly how things worked. And the parent pressure was spot on as well, expecting things even from someone so young at her first meet. Savannah also has deal with some friend drama at school when her closest friend starts hanging with the popular mean girl, who is jealous of Savannah and purposely excludes her. All of this felt age-appropriate as well. The concept of having more than one friend hasn't been discovered yet for many second graders. But they are learning who true friends really are, and in this case, that would be Savannah's gym friends. My biggest complaint about this story would be that Savannah is referred to, even by her peers and maybe even herself, as being little and cute multiple times. Kids generally don't describe themselves or their same-age peers that way. They see themselves as stronger and more powerful than adults see them. But otherwise, I thought this was a decent representation of the life of a second grade gymnast.

My granddaughter, age10, gets "bored" by a lot of things, but not this series of books. She is in gymnastics & loves these books! She started reading it immediately & read into the night,, something I remember doing when a youngster. I'm so glad it's a series, because now I know for sure it's something she likes that we can keep giving her-always wondered about other things we've been giving her, as we only see her one month a year, <sigh>

What a wonderful concept… a fun series of books that also gives you a behind-the-scenes look of beginning gymnastics. Perfect for early readers or anyone who’s enjoyed watching gymnastics.

My 8 year old daughter who is a gymnast) and I are reading this series together. We are on book #3 and loving it! The books are well written and realistic and each story holds your attention and leaves you wanting to keep reading. Highly recommend! It’s also worth noting that my daughter reads at a higher than average level, so I would recommend these books for kids reading at a minimum of a 4th or 5th grade reading level.

Granddaughter, a gymnast, loved this book. Asked for the others in this series.

I would recommend this to gymnasts age 7 and up, but this is still a good book. I love it!

This series of books is absolutely a must for the Young Gymnast. Young Gymnast definitely go through struggles mentally and physically. These books are great as they tackle those issues and the athletes really seem to connect to the characters. It’s good for them to see that everybody struggles at some point and it’s good for them to read how to overcome the struggles. We have read many of these books and I highly recommend them.

Great!

Bought for my 10year old Gymnast Daughter and she loved it