Rating: 3.6 out of 5 stars

Age Recommended: 9 and up

I’m really excited about writing this review because this is an advance reader copy (courtesy NetGalley) and the book is expected to be released on April 1st.

Skinner’s Banks is a story about a teenager, Cale Finch, who loves to skateboard. One day, he suddenly becomes famous, but he doesn’t know why or how. Even the popular kids come up to him and want to hang out with him.

When one of his friends shows him the newspaper, Cale realizes that the crazy stunt that he pulled a couple of days ago is in the newspaper and that he is considered somewhat of a skateboarding legend.

Cale tries to be modest about it but his friends want to shoot a movie about all of their skateboarding tricks. Cale’s friend, Josh, even gets a new camera for his birthday which he decides to use to shoot the film.

While doing tricks, Josh’s camera breaks and Cale rides the bus to another city to buy Josh a new lens.He gets off the bus and is ambushed by a bully called Tweeze and his gang. Cale survives the ambush, but loses the money.

The rest of the story is about how he finds support from others, copes with the loss of a dear friend, and stands up to bullying.

Even though I’m not into skateboarding, I liked this book because of the author’s style of writing. Brad V. Cowan wrote this book as if it was his own experience.

However, I wish that the author had spent a little more time writing about standing up to bullying and not as much about describing the various skateboarding tricks.