Book cover of The Knockout

Book description

"A rising star in Muay Thai figures out what (and who) is worth fighting for in this #ownvoices YA debut full of heart.

If seventeen-year-old Kareena Thakkar is going to alienate herself from the entire Indian community, she might as well do it gloriously. She's landed the chance of a…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Knockout as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The Knockout is about Kareena Thakkar, a Muay Thai fighter who straddles multiple worlds. In her Indian community, she struggles with not feeling “Indian enough,” and her athletic goals only accentuate that outsider status. At school, nobody knows she’s a serious athlete and because she’s unable to be her true self, she doesn’t feel as though she has a place. Finally, she’s a fierce athlete, carving a name for herself and a path to the US Muay Thai Open, which might lead directly to the first-ever Olympic team. As if straddling three separate worlds wasn’t complicated enough, she falls…

From Emma's list on YA featuring badass sporty girls.

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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