I received a complimentary digital galley provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange fro a honest review. All thoughts are my own.
 
For fans of the Mighty Ducks and the PWHL, Bea Mullins Takes a Shot is a wholesome read about a young girl gaining the confidence to play hockey and learns what it's like to be a part of a team. 

Bea Mullins is terrible at sports. When she played basketball, her teammates iced her out because she would never throw the ball to them. Therefore, Bea believes there is no sport she will ever be good at. 

When the gymnasium at her school floods, each student is forced to replace P.E. with a team sport. Of course, Bea would like to do anything else. But with some convincing, she and her best friend, Celia join the girl’s hockey team where Bea learns how to play hockey with a team that appreciates her and shows good sportsmanship toward one another. Bea also meets Gabi, an eighth grader who she starts crushing on. 

This middle grade debut was stellar! It exceeded my expectations as a hockey fan. I loved the little jabs to the Toronto Maple Leafs fans and references to Gretzky’s famous quote, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” I especially enjoyed the focus on women’s sports and sharing facts about the disparity between the NHL and PWHL which Bea realizes in real time as she sees how the girl’s team is treated at her school versus the boys. The boys get new equipment and uniforms plus a huge crowd whereas the girls have to fundraise to get enough ice time. 

I liked seeing how social media was incorporated as the girls brainstorm marketing tactics to bring in more audience members and raise money to keep their team alive. 

I loved how normalized queerness was in this book. Gabi and Bea have a little fling and Celia has two moms who are lesbian and bisexual. 

The hockey was written very well, too. The author has prior experience playing on a girl’s hockey team similar to Bea. But I appreciated how detailed she wrote each step of Bea’s hockey training, making it easy to understand and visualize what she was doing on the ice. 

I highly recommend this to any hockey lovers!