2012's GotY was McKenna Brooks. McKenna's main thing is that she's a gymnast.
In the first book, McKenna has fallen behind with the harder schoolwork of fourth grade. Her teacher and parents decide she needs a tutor, so she meets Josie Myers, a slightly older girl in a wheelchair.
After her initial reservations, McKenna finds herself liking both Josie and her tutoring methods, though she ends up in trouble with her gymnast friends for not telling them she was being tutored.
She gets sidelined with a broken ankle near the end of the book.
McKenna's second book has her recovered from her broken ankle and caught up on her schoolwork. She doesn't even need tutoring anymore, but she and Josie remain friends.
McKenna goes along with Josie on her first horseback-riding lesson, because Josie's afraid. There, McKenna learns about the place, which works with children with all forms of disabilities. She loves it and wants to volunteer there by the end of the book.
The big conflict in this book is really Toulane, McKenna's supposed best friend, but really, she's borderline frenemy. Toulane is just not a very nice character. She comes into her own by the end of this book, but she's one of the least likeable "best friends" for the GotYs. Toulane is struggling with no longer wanting to do competitive gymnastics. She wants to do rhythmic instead, but is afraid to tell her overly dominant mother about it. Near the end of the boo, both she and McKenna make the competitive team only for Toulane to hand her medal back, saying she wants to do rhythmic instead and giving her spot to their third friend, Sierra.
McKenna's books are all right. They're on the dull, slow-paced side, which is why it took me so long to slog through them again. Josie is by far the best character. She's the one who really should have been GotY. I love her. McKenna isn't horrible but she's not spectacular either, and Toulane is 99% unlikeable. Not the best efforts from AG.
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