Checked

Written by Cynthia Kadohata

Narrated by John Kroft

From Newbery Medalist Cynthia Kadohata comes a brilliantly realized sports novel about a hockey player who must discover who he is without the sport that defines him. Hockey is Conor's life. His whole life. He'll say it himself, he's a hockey beast. It's his dad's whole life too-and Conor is sure that's why his stepmom, Jenny, left. There are very few things Conor and his dad love more than the game, and one of those things is their Doberman, Sinbad. When Sinbad is diagnosed with cancer, Conor chooses to put his hockey lessons and practices on hold so they can pay for Sinbad's chemotherapy. But without hockey to distract him, Conor begins to notice more. Like his dad's crying bouts, and his friend's difficult family life. And then Conor notices one more thing: Without hockey, the one thing that makes him feel special, is he really special at all?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781501982385

Cynthia Kadohata

Cynthia Kadohata is the author of the Newbery Medal–winning book Kira-Kira, the National Book Award winner The Thing About Luck, the Jane Addams Peace Award and PEN America Award winner Weedflower, Cracker!, Outside Beauty, A Million Shades of Gray, Half a World Away, Checked, A Place to Belong, Saucy, and several critically acclaimed adult novels, including The Floating World. She lives with her dogs and hockey-playing son in California. Visit her online at CynthiaKadohata.com.

Reviews for Checked

[sweetiegherkin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Twelve-year-old Conor plays hockey competitively, hoping to one day join the NHL. His single father, who was once a professional hockey player himself, wholeheartedly supports this, but it's a struggle for their small family to pay the expensive bills. Things get worse when Conor's beloved dog, Sinbad, is diagnosed with cancer and his chemo treatment will cost $7,000. Can Conor still achieve his hockey dreams if he has to devote so much time to caring for a sick Sinbad?This book was not at all my cup of tea. I am not a sports fan, so a book that is 85-90% about hockey practice, hockey tryouts, hockey games, etc. is not compelling in my opinion. And, my experience is that kids who love sports want quickly-paced, short books -- not a 400-page clunker. Reading about a dog getting treated for cancer is obviously not super fun either, but that actually turned out to be a much smaller part of the book than I expected based on the cover with a picture of Sinbad and the jacket description of the book. The family relations storylines could have been really interesting, but they are such a small part of the story and not really explored in depth ever. The text is not particularly all that well-written either. For example, here's a passage that's indicative of much of the writing: "We got outside and cross through the cold parking lot. Man, it's cold in Illinois! We drive toward the hotel. I keep hoping for a Mexican restaurant, but we don't see any, so we decide on a random Chinese place we see. We buy four different dishes and eat every bite. It's actually not that good, don't know why I ate so much!"It's not exactly stellar writing. I know it's a book for children, but plenty of those have a better flow and style than that.There's also several moments where things that I found rather questionable were mentioned briefly but not explored in detail: reading WikiLeaks, police shooting unarmed persons, the movie Gladiator (full of blood sport, rape, and murder), etc. There was also a really weird passage about how Conor thinks it's okay to sometimes just change his boxers instead of showering but it would be "disgusting" for girls to do this. What?On the plus side, Conor does exhibit some rather positive traits like hard work, commitment to family, practice, being a good friend, and being a kind neighbor. Also, Conor is himself part Japanese and has friends/teammates of non-white races. So there is a bit of diversity being shown.However, those few redeeming qualities are not enough to carry this book. On the whole, it felt like it was floating along never really building up to anything and the end just seemed to be there without any real conclusion.