Review: "On Thin Ice" by Jessica Kim

On Thin Ice by Jessica Kim
Published February 2025 via Kokila
★★★

All Phoebe and and her twin Dexter want is to be on the ice—Dex with a hockey stick in hand and Phoebe perfecting her pairs skills. When Dex doesn’t make the cut for his team, though, and Phoebe’s partner is injured, it looks like their dreams will have to be put on ice—unless Dex steps in to learn pairs skating, help Phoebe compete, and keeps his blades sharp while he’s at it.

This is pretty classically middle grade, and it hits a sweet spot. The twins are set up as polar opposites: Dex is the outgoing, haphazard one, as interested in goofing off as he is in actually practicing, while Phoebe is something of an anxious perfectionist. They’re both grieving a major loss, but they haven’t found a way to share that grief with each other, each instead assuming that the other is no longer grieving. It adds a nice layer of depth to the story. It’s also really nice to see their mother grow too—she’s a supportive parent from beginning to end, but by the end of the book she has a better sense of what turmoil the kids haven’t let her see.

The skill level that Dex and Phoebe show is nicely age-appropriate—they’re good at their respective sports, but neither of them is going to the Olympics anytime soon. And that’s really nice—it makes the book feel applicable to a wider audience. I do wish there hadn’t been a budding romance (YA infecting MG…it’s a common thing), but it’s at least a fairly minor part of the book. This will go over well in middle school libraries, I think.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.