Mike by Andrew Norriss

Abstract

Reviewed by: Mike by Andrew Norriss Elizabeth Bush Norriss, Andrew Mike. Fickling/Scholastic, 2019 [240p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-338-28536-9 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-338-28538-3 $10.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 6-10 More of a distraction than a threat, Mike shows up from time to time at rising young tennis star Floyd Beresford’s practices and games, and when Floyd asks him to leave, Mike does—at least until the day he walks right beside the umpire’s chair during a match and Floyd asks that the game be stopped and the intruder removed. Only then does Floyd realize he’s the only one who can see Mike. A psychiatrist helps Floyd get to the bottom of why this projection is suddenly shutting down his game: Floyd really doesn’t want tennis to become his life. To placate his baffled parents, Floyd secures Mike’s agreement that he’ll play one last match, in which he [End Page 215] pretty much destroys his arrogant competitor. He then sets himself a new life course, a long-sublimated interest in marine biology, and then takes the slow but steady steps toward adulthood and a rewarding career. There are no bad guys here—no overwrought parents or quack shrinks, and even the vanquished tennis foe turns out to be okay—and Norriss treats the Mike phenomenon not as a pathology but as a very sane response to self-imposed pressure, a voice to be trusted. There’s a refreshing lack of angst here, yet Floyd’s got a grippingly rocky path ahead, filled with low-wage part-time work, academic struggle, swallowed pride, and continual concern over whether he has, or ever will, see the last of Mike. Nicely balanced between psychological dramedy and feel-good wish fulfillment, this British import is a congenial teen quick pick. Copyright © 2019 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois