Stronger Than She Thinks

With Van Cleave, Olympic medalist Kerrigan (b. 1969) writes a spirited autobiographical story about her childhood entry into ice skating. In Putra’s dynamic and saturated illustrations, Kerrigan appears in constant motion, while font-size changes emphasize verbs including darted and zoomed. Kerrigan finds ice skating “exhilarating,” and when her parents encourage her dream despite tight finances (“Nancy’s dad worked three jobs, and her mom didn’t work outside the home because she was blind”), she practices endlessly, continuing to train even with too-small skates, and working to problem-solve and land the elusive axel. Foregrounding the figure’s determination, hard work, and resilience, the title shows how landing a perfect axel led her to understand “I can do... anything.” An author’s note concludes. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)