Lu
by Jason Reynolds · Track #4
A swaggering, big-hearted closer to the Track quartet — and a stand-alone-strong novel about what really counts as winning.
The story
Lucas 'Lu' Richardson is the cocky, gold-chain-wearing co-captain of the Defenders track team and the fourth narrator in Jason Reynolds's celebrated Track quartet. As the team trains for the championship, Coach assigns Lu the one event he hates — hurdles — while at home a baby on the way and a discovery he wasn't supposed to make force him to ask hard questions about his father, his family, and the kind of person he wants to be. Funny, fast, and unexpectedly tender, Lu closes out the quartet by quietly redefining what it means to win.
Age verdict
Ideal at 10-12; comfortably stretches up to 13 and down to a strong 9-year-old reader.
Our take
Teacher-favored mentor text — kids will be drawn in by voice and stakes, parents will appreciate the moral reasoning, and teachers will recognize a near-ideal classroom read-aloud.
What stands out
Each audience's top 3 dimensions. Out of 30 scored per book.
Kids love
- Character voice Exceptional
Lu's first-person voice — list-rhythm, swagger, self-interrupting humor — is among the strongest in contemporary middle grade.
- Heart-punch Exceptional
Several quiet scenes hit hard, and the closing sequence lands a feeling kids will carry for days.
Parents love
- Writing quality Exceptional
Reynolds writes at spoken-word cadence with controlled rhythm and earned restraint — top-shelf middle-grade prose.
- Stereotype-breaker Exceptional
A Black albino male protagonist whose albinism is rendered with specificity rather than as a single trait or a moral lesson.
Teachers love
- Read-aloud power Exceptional
Engineered for read-aloud — short chapters, spoken-word cadence, and a voice that demands to be voiced.
- Mentor text quality Exceptional
Excellent mentor text for first-person voice, opening hooks, and theme delivered as action.
✓ Perfect for
- • Kids who loved Ghost, Patina, or Sunny
- • Reluctant readers who want a story with weight but not a heavy reading load
- • Sports fans who also love a strong narrator
- • Classrooms studying first-person voice or running a SEL unit on identity and family
Not ideal for
Readers who want a traditional sports book where the championship trophy is the point — Reynolds has something else in mind.
⚠ Heads up
At a glance
- Pages
- 224
- Chapters
- 21
- Words
- 45k
- Lexile
- 570L
- Difficulty
- Easy
- POV
- First Person
- Illustration
- None
- Published
- 2018
- Publisher
- Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Mood & style
You'll know it worked when…
Most kids will finish this in a weekend; the short chapters and voice-driven pull do the work.
If your kid loved "Lu"
Matched across 30 dimensions — interest hooks, character appeal, tone, pacing, emotional core. Not by what other people bought. By what fits the same reader profile.
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