Playing the Cards You're Dealt by Varian Johnson

 Ant (short for Anthony) is excited to compete in a Spades card game tournament. His performance in the tournament the previous year was not so great, and he is eager to do better and live up to his family legacy of Spades winners. The tournament is not the only thing on his mind.  His mom is extra stressed and his father is acting oddly.  His best friend and Spades partner is acting up too, and manages to get himself expelled and grounded for fighting.  The only bright spot in Ant's life is a new girl in school, who is not only pretty and smart, but can play Spades and trash talk with the best of them.  As the competition approaches, things at home get worse, and Ant finds himself dealing with way more than he ever imagined. His dad keeps telling him to man up, and keep his secrets, but Anthony can't ignore the feeling in his gut that keeping secrets that could harm his family is not what a real man does.

I checked this book out because I was waiting for another hold and it was short, plus really liked The Parker Inheritance by the same author.  I am so glad I did.  I don't know how much I would have enjoyed reading the book in print, but the narrator of the recorded book, Dion Graham, was fantastic.  The author does a great job of depicting the different people in a closely knit urban neighborhood.  Then Graham gives each one a pitch perfect voice.  The three old men at the convenience store were my favorite.  I could imagine and picture them just as if I were standing there in person.  Johnson addresses a lot of issues about what it means to be a pre-teen male in modern society; including respecting girls, what it means to be strong, and what "consent" looks like to a 10 year old. I was impressed with how Johnson was able to bring up and address these difficult ideas in a totally age appropriate way. The sad thing is that I don't think many people in my community would even pick up this book.  The title and the cover are a little unfortunate. Our library doesn't own a physical copy. Even though I loved the book, I am not sure it would be worth while to purchase one because I don't know who would read it. (2021, 320 p)