The Selective Collective reads BEING SLOANE JACOBS by LAUREN MORRILL
The Selective Collective features BEING SLOANE JACOBS by LAUREN MORRILL provided to us by Random House for review and use in The Selective Collective feature!
For my part in this Selective Collective post, I got to ask some questions to the ladies of the Selective Collective and we talked about some main themes of BEING SLOANE JACOBS!
Before we jump in, here’s a little info on the book:
Publishing Info: January 7th 2014 by Delacorte
Source: Physical ARC provided to us by Random House for review and use for the Selective Collective promotions
Book Synopsis: Meet Sloane Emily Jacobs: a seriously stressed-out figure-skater from Washington, D.C., who choked during junior nationals and isn’t sure she’s ready for a comeback. What she does know is that she’d give anything to escape the mass of misery that is her life.
Now meet Sloane Devon Jacobs, a spunky ice hockey player from Philly who’s been suspended from her team for too many aggressive hip checks. Her punishment? Hockey camp, now, when she’s playing the worst she’s ever played. If she messes up? Her life will be over.
When the two Sloanes meet by chance in Montreal and decide to trade places for the summer, each girl thinks she’s the lucky one: no strangers to judge or laugh at Sloane Emily, no scouts expecting Sloane Devon to be a hero. But it didn’t occur to Sloane E. that while avoiding sequins and axels she might meet a hockey hottie—and Sloane D. never expected to run into a familiar (and very good-looking) face from home. It’s not long before the Sloanes discover that convincing people you’re someone else might be more difficult than being yourself. — From Goodreads.com
ROUND TABLE: Chatting with The Selective Collective about BEING SLOANE JACOBS!
If you were to choose one of the Sloane’s sports to attempt to learn for the first time, which would you choose? Figure skating or ice hockey?
[Kristina – Gone Pecan] Ice hockey without a doubt. I absolutely love to watch figure skating but ice hockey is like roller derby, a sport where you can hit your opponents and sometimes get away with it. Not only that but I love when people go against the norm. Girls don’t generally play ice hockey and if someone ever tells me I can’t do something because I’m a girl, etc I usually set our to prove them wrong. (I mean if I REALLY don’t want to do it I don’t care what they say ya know?) I know its just a game and all but when you are losing or not performing at your peak I get that frustration so I understand the want to body check someone. 😛
[Candice – The Grown-Up YA] Oh, hands down ice skating! I’ve loved it every since I was little and, even though I can barely stand up in ice skates, always imagined how awesome it would be to be a figure skater. As a little girl I remember watching it and thinking how cool the skaters were, doing jumps and twirls and flips. And there’s always so much DRAMA – Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding were THE STORY when I was younger. But I think what I love most about it isn’t just that it’s pretty; it’s that there’s real training involved. I love that it combines so many different aspects and that everything has to be spot on to win. One tiny misstep can destroy a career. And while I don’t know if I could handle that amount of pressure, I certainly would love to try!
[Daphne – Gone Pecan] I am very much not athletic. Plus I’m a klutz. So, if I had to choose, I would definitely choose hockey, since there’s all the padding and there are teammates who would take the heat and pressure off.
Both girls have issues with nerves when it comes down to the wire in their respective sports. What types of things do you do to get your nerves under control in a high-stress situation?
[Candice – The Grown-Up YA] Does having a total melt down in a stall in the ladies’ room count? No? Hm… cause that’s typically what I do. Maybe not the BEST, but I feel that going to a secluded spot – be it the stall in the ladies’ room, a storage closet, under my desk, wherever – and letting myself have the meltdown is the best way for me to gain control in a high stress situation. Sometimes I feel that I don’t let myself acknowledge my feelings or stress and try to push them down. It just ends up exploding all over the place and that’s not cool my friends. So for me, I think letting myself acknowledge the fact that I’m stressed does wonders to help calm my nerves and let me take control of the situation before those nerves cause me to completely lose it.
Sloane Emily has some tough family issues, mostly surrounding her parents, but she also has her brother who is the most supportive of her in her family. Do you have a relative or family member that you have a special relationship with?
[Sandie – Teen Lit Rocks] I love both of my brothers and consider all four of us to be really close siblings, but my sister and I have a special sisterly bond. She’s 12 years older than I, so we never had that awkward fighting and competitive relationship that’s so common among close-in-age siblings. When I was little, she was like a second, much cooler mom, and then when I got older, she transitioned to becoming my very best friend. Although we have both been blessed with fabulous female friends, she is the one person I would call (sometimes, depending on the topic and situation, even before my husband) to share a joy or hurt with or to discuss something important. She’s unconditionally supportive and encouraging of my career, my parenting, and my personhood. I know she wishes the best for me, and in the absence of living parents, she is my steadfast, most secure connection to our extended family. I don’t think I would be the woman I am without my sister’s guiding and loving presence.
[Tee – YA Crush] I don’t have siblings, and as much as I longed for a brother or sister and believed that my life would be perfect with that addition, I have two people in my family who I tend to go to, overall, with everything (I think I talk with each of them about different things). The most obvious is my husband, of course, who was a dear, closer than close friend to me long before we ever dated and whose opinion and point of view I have complete faith in and total respect for. But of course, he’s a boy. Even if he’s a man, he’s a boy and boys just see the world differently. The person I go to for pretty much everything (sometimes it seems it would be more often than my hubby) is my mom. She is a rock, a loving, funny, insurmountable force in my life, as much now as she was when I was a child–not because she’s a meddler or anything like that (quite the opposite), but because now, as an adult, as a wife, and as a mom, I get it. I see what a wealth of knowledge she has about life and love and I finally understand that the information she gives, the wisdom she shares, is all given freely from the perspective of someone who has my best interests at heart. That’s always been the case, yes, but I guess that didn’t really sink in until I grew up.
Have you ever had a mix-up with someone who had the same name as you? Or if not, have you ever had an encounter with a look-alike?
[Kristina – Gone Pecan] I actually went to middle and high school with a girl a grade below me that ALMOST had the same name. We were both Kristinas (mine with a K obvs, her’s with a Ch) and our last names were one letter off. Every now and then if we were both at the same place we might do a double take when our names where called out but not actual mix ups. Some people say my sister and I look pretty close minus the hair color. In fact once she went darker with her hair and someone called her by my name and that wasn’t pretty. Everyone wants to be themselves and stand out in their own way so I tried to not be too offended. (Just kidding if you are reading this sis!!!)
[Brittany – The Book Addict’s Guide] I actually haven’t met my own look-alike, but my sister SWORE she saw someone who looked just like me at Six Flags and then at one of my old apartments, the maintenance guy was freaked out because he said I looked just like his niece! I would love to meet my doppelgangers because I need to compare and see if I agree! My last name is pretty unique and Italian so I haven’t met anyone with the same name as me, but I did just get an email from a Brittney Smith which made me realize that WOULD be my name once I get married in the fall (well, minus the different spelling) and for some reason that totally weirded me out!
[Sandie – Teen Lit Rocks] Yes! I don’t have a very common maiden name (in terms of Latino last names, it’s not nearly as widespread as Lopez or Rodriguez or Garcia — http://names.mongabay.com/
[Daphne – Gone Pecan] Not really, but when googling yourself became a thing, I succumbed to the (nonexistent) peer pressure and googled my name. My maiden name is very distinctive German name that can be spelled a dozen different ways (and is) and of course, Daphne is not a very popular name. I did find a woman in New Orleans with the exact same name (and spelling) as me, and she ran marathons. I loved that. So if anyone googles my maiden name, they would think I ran marathons. I’m thinking of having it put on my tombstone.
And please don’t forget to check out the features from the other ladies in The Selective Collective! We each have a post to feature a different side of BEING SLOANE JACOBS so please go visit their take on the book as well!
Tee @ YA Crush | Review: Being Sloane Jacobs |
Candice @ The Grown-Up YA | Author Q&A + Giveaway! |
Diana & Sandie @ Teen Lit Rocks | Identity Swapping |
Daphne & Kristina @ Gone Pecan | Being Sloane Jacobs: From Page to Screen |
5 thoughts on “The Selective Collective features Being Sloane Jacobs: Round Table”
Great answers! I wouldn’t be able to do either of these activities. I have tried ice skating before and to say that I am wobbly is an understatement. Maybe I could be a cheerleader? 🙂
Aww, I love the mini Q&A you guys did for Being Sloane Jacobs! The questions are awesome, and I think I’m going to answer the last one here. I’ve never encountered anyone with the same name as me, but my sisters and I get mistaken for each other ALL. THE. TIME. It doesn’t bother us as much since we’re used to it, but we’ve all done drastic things involving our hair so we don’t look alike haha.
This was so fun to read through as always. The round table discussions are always a personal favorite. I love reading everyone’s thoughts about the book and its themes.
Awww C – Don’t hide!! Poor Sandie though – to have someone with the same name and they aren’t an upstanding citizen. Love the questions B!
Love all these answers! There were a couple that tugged on my heartstrings! I didn’t answer the last question, but when I was in 6th grade there was another Candice in my first period class – where they took the main role for the day. Our teacher COULD NOT understand that I was not Candice Carter, who missed quite a bit of school. Every report card term (we got report cards every 6 weeks) I had to go and correct my number of absences. Not an easy task for an 11 year old!