"Girls who play sports and the coaches and families who support them will thoroughly enjoy this warm, uplifting story!"- Christine Brennan, USA TODAY Columnist, and Author of On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports
When Maggie Steele loses her older brother, the future seems to close in around her. Life on her family's Kansas farm keeps moving, but Maggie feels stuck in grief, pressure, and self-doubt until she discovers an unlikely way forward: the pole vault.
What begins as a daring escape becomes something much more. As Maggie learns to trust her body, face fear, and push past the limits others place on her, the crossbar becomes more than a mark of athletic progress. It becomes the line between the life she has known and the person she is becoming.
Now in its enhanced Second Edition, Maggie Vaults Over the Moon is a coming-of-age sports novel for middle grade and young teen readers, ages 10 and up, grades 5-8. Ideal for independent reading, classroom discussion, Battle of the Books programs, team culture, and family conversation, this edition features a foreword by Olympic Pole Vault Champion Katerina Stefanidi and chapter discussion questions by Dr. Melissa I. White, a Mental Performance Consultant whose former student-athletes include 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials pole vault champion Bridget (Guy) Williams.
Selected for the Wichita Diocese Catholic Schools Battle of the Books, named one of the best track-and-field novels of all time by Citius Mag, and praised by Kirkus Reviews as "a fine YA novel about perseverance in sports and in life," Maggie is a story about grit, family, healing, and the courage to keep reaching higher. The audiobook is narrated by Audie Award and Emmy Award-winning Tavia Gilbert (Blackstone Audio).
Contains no profanity or sexual content. Honest treatment of grief, family loss, and recovery.