Meet Lupe Wong -- a total jock who is appalled that she will be required to learn square dancing in P.E. class. On a quest to earn straight As and get to meet her baseball idol Fu Li (who is also Mexican and Chinese like Lupe), Lupe sees square dancing as lame and a potential grade changer. Armed with a PowerPoint presentation she tries to stop Square Dancing in its tracks. However, in her quest to squash square dancing she is losing sight of what is important? Lupe may have to choose between her “A”, making a difference for her fellow classmates, and being there for her friends when they need her.
The narration in this novel is inclusive and authentic, and the humor is wonderful. I found myself chuckling as I read – got to love the opening sentence: “My gym shorts burrow into my butt crack like a frightened groundhog.”
Lupe is a strong character who doesn’t shy away from challenges or bullies, but she can sometimes be self-centered and steamroll her friends. Lupe grows during the story and her enthusiasm is infectious.
Lupe Wong Won’t Dance is funny and fresh but also addresses the loss of a parent and the importance of family even when school is probably central to a middle schooler’s life.
( )

Lupe Wong has some very strong opinions. Baseball is better than soccer. There should be more biracial choices when filling out forms at school, because no one should have to identify as "other." And square dancing is not a thing that middle schoolers should be forced to do. The gross humor surprised me, and I spit-laughed more than once. I highly recommend Lupe Wong Won't Dance for the humor, the range of excellent characters, and the inspirational story (that is well balanced by Lupe's very non-sappy personality.) Try the audiobook, I loved it! ( )

Lupe Wong is of Chinese and Mexican heritage, the first string pitcher on her 7th grade baseball team, and determined to be the first woman pitcher in the major leagues. Her uncle has told her that if she gets straight As, he'll introduce her to Fu Li, a pitcher she's looked up to and of the same mixed heritage as she. But this PE quarter may throw off all her grand plans, because they're doing a unit on square dancing.

Joining Lupe are a great cast of characters, family and friends, who support her, misunderstand her, and have back stories in their own right that readers occasionally see through Lupe's first-person narration or in conversations with her. Lupe is young, and sometimes makes mistakes with her friends Niles and Andy, seeing things narrowly through her own point of view and using them to her own ends. And she's still mourning the passing of her father. I found myself, as an adult reader, sometimes irritated with her inability to see outside of herself, but I think a child reader would sympathize more and that it was a realistic. Lupe grows over the course of the novel: she's always fiery and taking up causes, but exactly how she does that - especially in relation to square dancing - shifts from a demand to stop it because she doesn't want to do it to a more nuanced acknowledgement of the good and the bad of it, and a desire to be more inclusive in general. ( )

Lupe's dad once told her that when she was passionate about something, she should never settle for less. She's taken that advice to heart, especially since her dad died soon after that in a tragic accident. Her previous causes have included things like getting more race options on school forms for biracial kids like herself, but she may have just met her Waterloo: square dancing. Why should square dancing be part of the 7th grade PE curriculum? It's not even a sport! As Lupe's efforts to escape her square dancing nightmare intensify, she finds her social standing and even her closest friendships at risk. Is it worth it, or should she bow (and do-si-do) to the inevitable?

Lupe is a great, strong character, and the secondary characters (both adults and Lupe's classmates) are likewise well-drawn. I enjoyed Lupe's sometimes-misguided activism. Kids will enjoy the booger and fart jokes. Win-win! ( )

Issaquah, WA Middle schooler Lupe Wong loves baseball and is deeply upset that her PE requirement is square dancing. She works on getting this changed. One of her best friends is autistic. Kinda salty in an appropriate way (farts, boogers, etc) -- and I love the irreverence of it -- Lupe's character is so matter of factly herself, and she does not give up. I was fascinated to learn the history of square dancing in middle school, of several of the songs that are traditionally used (even though that history is ugly) and I loved to see her activism bear fruit. I also really loved that the teachers and principal were so willing to hear her, even if they weren't willing to change their minds, and I loved the cringy/goofy adults celebrating square dancing, because dance makes us feel good in a way that nothing else can. Great story.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss ( )