Wooding, Chris. Velocity.

Wooding, Chris.  Velocity. Scholastic Press     2017  325p  $18.99  ISBN 978-0-545-94494-6        ms/hs     Science Fiction  E-BN

Cassica and Shiara live in the boonies in a future time after a terrible global war has taken place.  They spend their free time racing vehicles.  Cassie is the fearless, reckless, decisive driver.  Shiara is her mechanic who can build working vehicles from scrap and calculate winning strategies.  Together they make a great team, both in spite of and because of their differences.

After winning a dangerous local race, they attract the attention of a promoter who gets them to participate in a national event.  The girls are considered underdogs, but the crowd loves their gutsy determination.  There are exciting race sequences in which they manage to survive in a world where there are forces out to specifically destroy them.  The friendship is sorely tested but wins out in the end.  The girls discover that the deck was stacked against them from the beginning, and the glamorous world of racing is crooked and not what the projected image shows.
 

This is a wonderful story of a friendship that survives challenges and tests, set among exciting action scenes that desribe the exciting threats and dangers of racing.  Readers in grade 7 and up will be drawn into this explosive world.

Summary: Set in the future after a global war, this is a story of ultimate car racing and the friendship between two teenaged girls.  Exciting action racing sequences with imaginative villains.  Grades 7 up.                       

Racing-Fiction, Friendship-Fiction                                      --Joan Theal