African-American track phenom Patina Jones takes the baton from Ghost (2016) in the second volume of Reynolds' Track series for middle graders.Reynolds tells readers almost all they need to know about Patty in two opening, contrasting scenes. In the first, Patty misjudges her competitors in an 800-meter race she's certain she should have won. Running well but second is not enough for the ferociously competitive Patty. In the other, she braids her little sister's hair before church, finishing off each of Maddy's 30 braids with three beads. She does this every Sunday because their white adoptive mother can't ("there ain't no rule book for white people to know how to work with black hair") and because their birth mother insists they look their best for church. Their father dead and their birth mother's legs lost to diabetes, the two girls live with their father's brother and his wife, seeing their mother once a week in an arrangement that's as imperfect as it is loving and necessary. Writing in Patty's voice, Reynolds creates a fully dimensional, conflicted character whose hard-earned pragmatism helps her bring her relay team together, negotiate the social dynamics of the all-girls, mostly white private school she attends, and make the best of her unusual family lot. When this last is threatened, readers will ache right alongside her. Another stellar lapreaders will be eager to see who's next. (Fiction. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Back for the second leg of the Track series relay, the Defenders team has passed the baton to title character Patina, nicknamed Patty. First introduced to readers in Ghost (rev. 11/16), Patty has been forced to grow up quickly. After her father dies suddenly, Pattys role in raising her younger sister Maddy grows larger as their mother gets ill and ultimately becomes a double amputee due to complications from diabetes. While moving in with their godparents, who have adopted them both, has relieved some of the pressure, Patty is not always certain how to relinquish her role as caregiver. She takes it upon herself to braid Maddys hair (as opposed to letting their adoptive mother, Momly, do it) because aint no rule book for white people to know how to work with black hair. Patty pushes Ma in her wheelchair to and from church on Sundays. She does all the work on her group project at school, and angrily counts her second-place ribbon at a track meet as fake. At some point, Momly reminds her, Folks who try to do everything are usually avoiding one thing. Those words ring true when an almost-tragedy strikes the household and Patty is forced to face the thing--the loss she feels at the death of her father--and start to trust others. For his first book featuring a female protagonist, Reynolds has done an excellent job of providing insights into the life of an African American middle schooler. Track scenes (and drama) are interspersed with home and school scenes (and drama); and as the new girl at an elite academy, Pattys interactions with her vapid hair-flipper classmates, especially, are both humorous and authentic. eboni njoku (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

*Starred Review* When Patina Patty Jones, the fastest girl on the Defenders track team, comes in second place in a race a fact she finds unacceptable her rage is so intense that she mentally checks out. In an effort to make her into a team player, Coach assigns her to the 4x800 relay race and makes the relay team do hokey things like waltz in practice to learn each others' rhythms. Pfft. Meanwhile, Patty feels completely out of place at her rich-girl academy. And then there's the really hard stuff. Like how her father died, how her mother got the sugar (diabetes) and it took her legs, and now Patty and her little sister live with their aunt Emily and uncle Tony. Reynolds' again displays his knack for capturing authentic voice in both Patty's inner monologues and the spoken dialogue. The plot races as fast as the track runners in it, and without ever feeling like a book about issues it deftly tackles topics like isolation, diverse family makeup, living with illness, losing a parent, transcending socioeconomic and racial barriers, and perhaps best of all what it's like for a tween to love their little sister more than all the cupcakes in the world. The second entry in the four-book Track series, this serves as a complete, complex, and sparkling stand-alone novel. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Ghost (2016), the semiprequel, was a National Book Award finalist, and this ought to perpetuate Reynolds' hot streak.--Worthington, Becca Copyright 2017 Booklist

NO APPARENT DISTRESS: A Doctor's Coming-of-Age on the Front Lines of American Medicine, by Rachel Pearson. (Norton, $26.95.) In this med-school memoir that is also a probing moral inquiry, Pearson describes her struggles trying to treat patients left out of the American health care system. WILD THINGS: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult, by Bruce Handy. (Simon & Schuster, $26.) The premise of Handy's eccentric essay is that we should take children's literature seriously. The book succeeds wonderfully, not so much as an argument but as an emanation of spirit. LITTLE SOLDIERS: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve, by Lenora Chu. (Harper, $27.99.) Chu vividly sketches the differences between the education structures of China and the United States in terms that will make readers ponder what they think about rote memorization and parents question their preferences for their own children. A BOY IN WINTER, by Rachel Seiffert. (Pantheon, $25.95.) Set over three days in November 1941, Seiffert's novel probes the bonds and betrayals in a Ukrainian town as it succumbs to Hitler's armies. Whether farmers or engineers, German or Ukrainian or Jewish, all must make wrenching choices. THE LOCALS, by Jonathan Dee. (Random House, $28.) Dee's latest novel, set in the years after 9/11 in the fictional Berkshires town of Howland, Mass., offers an engrossing panorama of cops, nurses, carpenters, organic farmers and one relocated hedge fund titan. CHESTER B. HIMES: A Biography, by Lawrence P. Jackson. (Norton, $35.) This comprehensively researched biography offers a bracing journey through the life of the uncompromising Himes, whose hard-boiled detective series mirrored his shrewd cynicism about racial progress in America. Jackson refuses to romanticize Himes's life or his motivation for becoming an artist. ALL'S FAIRE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL, written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson. (Dial, $12.99; ages 9 to 12.) This second graphic novel from the creator of "Roller Girl" offers a nuanced look at Imogene, a home-schooled girl who's grown up at a Renaissance faire. THE LITTLE RED CAT WHO RAN AWAY AND LEARNED HIS ABC'S (THE HARD WAY). Written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell. (Little, Brown, $17.99; ages 4 to 8.) In this delightful alphabet book by the creator of the comic strip Mutts, readers must use the one letter on each page to figure out the plot. PATINA, by Jason Reynolds. (Atheneum, $16.99; ages 10 and up.) This second book in Reynolds's Track series focuses on Patina Jones, the fastest girl on the track team, who has to master passing the baton while navigating a rough road at home. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books