Let's Go, Coco!

by Coco Fox, Coco Fox (Illustrator)

Overview

In this earnestly funny middle grade graphic novel debut, eleven-year-old Coco will stop at nothing to make new friends on her basketball team. But as Coco navigates the highs and lows of sixth grade, she will have to reconcile with the fact that relationships are complex and true friends are supposed to like you just the way you are.

When Coco joins the school basketball team, she’s ready to rock. Joining the team means new friends—something she's desperate for—but it also means dealing with bossy teammates, confusing crushes, and less-than-flattering new nicknames. When the team’s all-star player, Maddie, starts calling her “shrimp,” Coco realizes it’s not actually a joke and that she's going to need new moves if she wants to score both on and off the court. But her resilience is put to the ultimate test when a courtside catastrophe threatens to put an end to the new world she’s worked so hard to be a part of.

Told with tenderness, humor, and above all heart, Coco Fox delivers a sorta-true story about taking your best shot, even when the odds are stacked against you.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063256415
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/13/2024
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	808,839
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Coco Fox is a cartoonist from Indiana, now located in Vermont, who has an MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies. Let’s Go, Coco! is her first graphic novel. After playing two years on her middle school basketball team, the Owls, she retired from competitive basketball for good.  

Coco Fox is a cartoonist from Indiana, now located in Vermont, who has an MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies. Let’s Go, Coco! is her first graphic novel. After playing two years on her middle school basketball team, the Owls, she retired from competitive basketball for good.  

Editorial Reviews

05/13/2024

In this semi-autobiographical debut, Fox combines middle school angst with giggle-inducing humor to deliver a wholesome graphic novel romp. Left alone following her best (and only) friend Blair’s move from Indiana to Boston, sixth grader Coco attempts to make new friends. It’s only after she literally falls into a group of girls that Coco begins to learn—via trial and error—how to obtain and be a good companion. Joining the Owls basketball team, Coco befriends star player Maddie, who constantly belittles Coco and their teammates. During a sleepover, Coco suffers heartbreak when her crush Tami reveals she likes the team’s mascot and jeopardizes her long-distance friendship with Blair by lying about why she can’t call Blair that night. When Maddie, furious at being upstaged by Coco in the semifinal, reveals Coco’s crush and her own careless remarks about her teammates, Coco must reconsider who her real confidants are and whether she has been acting like a friend to the people closest to her. Fox renders Coco’s anxiety as eerie flame-like tendrils sprouting from the edges of pages, highlighting through the on-point visuals the emotional turbulence of adolescence. Frenetically designed characters are portrayed with varying skin tones. Ages 8–12. Agent: Charlie Olsen, InkWell Management. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

2024-05-17
A middle schooler faces new challenges when her best (and only) friend moves away.

In this graphic novel that’s loosely based on the author’s life, Indiana sixth grader Coco is determined to make new friends now that BFF Blair is busy with her new life in Boston. Despite her anxiety, which is represented by jagged white flamelike tendrils swirling around her, Coco joins the basketball team, the Lady Owls, hoping to hang out with her crush, Tami. When new nonbinary student Zander joins the team, Tami and Coco suggest dropping “Lady” from the name to be more inclusive. After Coco breaks her wrist during practice and must play with a cast, she starts passing the ball to Maddie, a talented teammate who used to taunt her. The girls become a dynamic duo on the court, but their subsequent friendship involves some emotional turbulence. Coco embarks on a mission to correct her mistakes and mend her relationships with family and friends. When her anxiety worsens, she’ll need to rely on her teammates to help her through the championship. The expressive faces, clean lines, and uncluttered panels allow readers to clearly identify how the characters are feeling. The color palette is composed of varying shades of purples, oranges, and whites and is reminiscent of the lesbian pride flag. Coco, Maddie, and Zander read white; Blair is coded Chinese American, and Tami appears Black.

A quirky, heartfelt celebration of bravery, friendship, and self. (Graphic fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews

A heartwarming, smartly written, laugh-a-minute story about being true to your friends and being true to yourself. — Johnnie Christmas, New York Times bestselling and award-winning creator of Swim Team

With heartfelt emotion and humorous basketball hijinks, this story is a slam dunk. — Rex Ogle, author of Free Lunch and Four Eyes

A fun, charming, and stellar story about finding your way through friendship. — Michelle Mee Nutter, bestselling illustrator of Allergic and Squished

A quirky, heartfelt celebration of bravery, friendship, and self. — Kirkus Reviews

In this semi-autobiographical debut, Fox combines middle school angst with giggle-inducing humor to deliver a wholesome graphic novel romp.  — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher