Push Girl

May 15, 2014
Co-writer Hill draws on her own experience as a teen coping with paraplegia to tell a hopeful story. "My parents. Getting a divorce. This was the absolute worst thing that could happen to me," Kara Moore laments as she prepares to sneak out to a party. She's wrong: Curt, her popular boyfriend, humiliates Kara in front of everyone, and when she flees the party, a drunk driver hits her car, paralyzing her from the waist down. A talented dancer, Kara has to adjust to more than a wheelchair. People's attitudes have changed, too-including hers. Except for a plucky fellow patient, her friend, Amanda, and her ex-boyfriend, Jack, her peers are distant, and Kara is reeling from being unable to dance. Everyday barriers don't help; even though Kara's rehabilitation is glossed over, she makes plain her frustrations with narrow doorways, thick carpets and distant elevators. These details ameliorate occasionally stilted prose. When Jack persuades Kara to run for homecoming queen, the determined "Kara 2.0" starts a chapter of Hill's own Walk and Roll Foundation and reaps unexpected rewards. The book's overall optimism is heartening, but the cursory ending disappoints-considering that Kara loved to dance and driving was "[her] Zen," her discovery of wheelchair dancing and learning to drive with hand controls deserve more attention than a couple of summary paragraphs. A light, ultimately upbeat look at life after spinal cord injury. (Fiction. 13-18)

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August 1, 2014

Gr 8 Up-High school junior Kara is popular with the "right" people, has a to-die-for athletic boyfriend, and is sure to be her school's next homecoming queen. However, when she learns that her parents are contemplating a divorce, she drives off recklessly in her car and ends up in a debilitating accident. Paralyzed from the waist down, Kara's dreams of being a dancer are totally dashed, and her in-crowd friends and boyfriend are nowhere to be found. Instead, it is her lifelong friend Amanda (whom she has recently ignored) and her ex-boyfriend Jack who devote themselves to helping her find meaning in life once again. Kara attempts to do something positive with her losses by becoming a "push girl" (one who faces adversity and comes out swinging), and her sense of personal worth soars, despite her diminished mobility. Star of the TV series Push Girls, Hill endured the same type of injury which her protagonist undergoes and also founded the Walk and Roll Foundation that Kara initiates in the novel to aid people with spinal cord injuries. The writing duo's personal experiences informed the realistic dialogue and fully developed main character (secondary characters are not as developed). Although the ending is predictable, both Kara's accepting her fate and the ups and downs of her relationships with family and friends will keep the attention of teens. The use of text messaging adds currency to the story, while the narrator's typical adolescent behavior will ring true for this audience. This tearjerker is sure to be popular with readers.-Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, formerly at LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2014
Grades 9-11 Kara Moore thinks her life is perfect. After all, she is a dancer dating a hot athlete and at the front of the line to be homecoming queen. Everything changes the night a drunk driver slams into her car, paralyzing her from the waist down. Kara's identity is unalterably changed, but she begins to learn that there is more to her than a boyfriend, a crown, or even a wheelchair. Hill and Love write a moving novel partially inspired by Hill's own story (as seen on the Sundance channel reality show of the same name). Kara moves through the familiar stages of grief and disappointment on the road to acceptance of her paralysis. Although she has a large support network of friends and family, it is Kara who must decide who she will be and how she will handle this unexpected change in her life. This is an emotional story with elements any teen reader can relate to, primarily the search for one's own identity. Readers will be inspired and moved by Kara's amazing journey.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)