FIERCELY FICTIONAL celebrates fierce, inspiring fictional girls we know you’ll love. To us, “fierce” isn’t just about slaying dragons or solving mysteries. It’s about breaking free from your comfort zone, discovering your confidence, fighting for what you believe in, & discovering your emotional strength. Any girl can shine bright & be fierce, & in this series, we’ll connect you with a new fiercely fictional character every month!
FIERCELY FICTIONAL is back, and this time, we’re shinging a light on Bea Mullins from Bea Mullins Takes a Shot, by Emily Deibert!
Seventh grader Bea Mullins couldn’t be more excited when her middle school gym is flooded, and PE is canceled. That is until Bea and her classmates are forced to join an after-school activity, which is how Bea finds herself lacing up her skates and taking the ice as a part of the Glenwood Geese, her school’s first all-girls hockey team.
Bea’s not exactly athletic and would prefer an afternoon of video games to one spent playing sports. She’s a beginner at best, and anxious about letting down her teammates, especially her BFF Celia, who dreams of playing professionally and is serious about the sport. But it turns out a lot of the other girls are beginners too, and after an eye-opening field trip to a professional women’s hockey game, Bea finds herself fully invested and thinks hockey might just be kind of fun.
As the girls work to sharpen their skills on the ice, Bea finds herself falling in love with hockey – and falling for the ambitious and cool co-captain, Gabi. But since this is middle school, there are plenty of things at play for her to navigate on and off the ice that have her emotions scrambled. But when she hears that the team’s funding is in danger, Bea steps up and fights for them to keep playing.
Bea Mullins Takes a Shot:
When a 7th grader is forced to join her school’s hockey team, she discovers unexpected friendships and a budding crush on the team captain. This fierce and heartfelt queer romance explores the courage to face your fears, even when your dreams are on thin ice.
Some goals are worth falling for.
After a lifetime of humiliating sports experiences, Bea Mullins knows the best way to survive middle school is to stick to the sidelines. When PE is suddenly canceled, though, Bea is forced to join an after-school activity…which is how she ends up as a member of the Glenwood Geese, her middle school’s first all-girls hockey team.
Bea would be happy sitting on the bench, but she doesn’t want to let down her best friend, Celia. Plus, the more time Bea spends on the rinks, the more she comes to enjoy her teammates, especially the incredibly talented–and incredibly cool–co-captain Gabi. But when low funding puts the Geese in danger of never playing again, Bea realizes she may lose everything she didn’t know she wanted.
A hilarious and heartfelt middle-grade contemporary about first crushes and fierce friendships from debut author Emily Deibert.
Bea Mullins Takes a Shot
AUTHOR: Emily Deibert
PUBLISHER: Random House Books for Young Readers
DATE: February 25, 2025
So what makes Bea fierce? She never backs down from a challenge! She tries a new sport, even when she’s reluctant, and ends up throwing her whole heart into it. When the team’s funding is at risk, she does everything in her power to save her team. And when she makes mistakes, she apologizes with her whole heart behind it. One of the best things about this book is the way it highlights women’s sports, name-drops a few notable hockey players, and showcases how much women deserve their place on the ice.
We’re excited to share that author Emily Deibert is here to share a peek between the pages of Bea Mullins Takes a Shot and all the reasons Bea is totally fierce!
🏒GIVEAWAY: Want to WIN a copy of this heartwarming hockey read? Click HERE to enter!
Five Reasons Bea Mullins is Totally Fierce:
She’s a fierce advocate for women in sports:
Bea may not consider herself to be very “sporty”, but after watching the Toronto Sceptres hockey team play a game in the Professional Women’s Hockey League, she’s totally hooked. So when a lack of funding threatens her middle school’s girls’ ice hockey team, Bea does everything she can to make sure that she and her new teammates are able to stay in the game.
From organizing a charity match against her teachers, to convincing her NHL-superfan older brother that women’s hockey games are just as exciting as men’s, Bea gives it her all to show her community that women belong in sports.
She works hard to improve her game:
When Bea first joins her school’s girls’ ice hockey team, she hasn’t skated in years—and she doesn’t even know how to stop on ice skates! But as she grows to love both the new sport and her new team, she commits 100% of her effort to improving her game. That means extra training sessions with her new friend (who might more than a friend) Gabi, and paying close attention during a field trip to a professional ice hockey game.
Through her dedication, Bea not only learns how to be a better hockey player, but also learns how to become a better teammate for her fellow players on the Glenwood Geese girls’ ice hockey team.
She tackles big feelings:
Like most middle schoolers, Bea is dealing with lots of big feelings—from anxiety about letting down her friends and family, to a budding crush on one of her new teammates. At first, Bea is reluctant to share these feelings with the people around her. She hides her anxiety about her hockey skills from her parents, and hides her crush on her teammate from her BFF Celia.
But the more these feelings grow, the more Bea starts to realize how much it can help to face her emotions head-on—and to share her feelings with the people who love her. By opening up to her dad and her BFF, Bea is able to tackle these big feelings and get through them with the support of the people who care about her.
She owns up to her mistakes:
Everyone makes mistakes, and although Bea tries her best to be a good friend and good teammate, she doesn’t always make the best decisions and sometimes ends up hurting the people she cares about. But what makes Bea fierce is her willingness to own up to her mistakes and make things right—with big gestures and even bigger apologies.
When Bea neglects her friendship with her bestie for more time with her crush, she apologizes with a grand gesture in the middle of a winter snowstorm. And when she lets her fear of embarrassing herself get in the way of helping her team, she apologizes with a viral video that might be just what they need to stay in their league.
Nobody’s perfect, but Bea knows that it’s important to take ownership of your mistakes and apologize when you’ve hurt the people you care about.
She faces her fear of failure:
When Bea first joins the Glenwood Geese, she can’t imagine anything worse than messing up in front of everyone and letting down her team. In fact, Bea’s so scared of failure that she often doesn’t even let herself try in the first place. When the puck comes her way during hockey games, Bea skates off in the complete opposite direction. And when she has a chance to tell her crush how she feels, she totally clams up.
But the more time she spends on her new team, the more Bea starts to realize how important it is to take chances on yourself—even when you’re not sure that things will work out the way you want them to. Failure is a part of life, and as Bea’s dad always tells her, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. As Bea learns to take a shot on herself, she realizes that it’s not about whether you win or lose—it’s about how you play the game.
📚Need another fierce read to add to your shelf after Bea Mullins Takes a Shot? Catch up on our FIERCELY FICTIONAL series!
