Shark Girl (by Kelly Bingham)

Jane is an award-winning, 15-year-old artist who joins her mother and brother on a routine trip to the beach one summer afternoon. A few hours later, she's attacked by a shark while swimming only four yards from the shore. Her right arm is amputated above the elbow, and her life is changed forever.

Jane is acutely aware of boys and how they'll respond to her with an artificial arm back at school. People reach out to her though, including a "popular senior boy" that stirs some school gossip and tension with a girl friend. Volunteering at the hospital and helps her on her slow journey of self-discovery and acceptance.

This is an emotional book that's best for the tender-hearted reader ready for some soul-searching. Written using narrative, poems, and letters to Jane from strangers moved by her story, the story follows Jane's slow progress to accepting her traumatic experience. The sadness, hopelessness, and depression felt by the main character, along with emotions of meaningful people in her life, are honestly depicted through dialogue and plot and will be quite moving to the right kind of introspective reader.

Author: Kelly Bingham
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication date: April 19, 2007
Number of pages: 288
Hardcover price: $16.99
Read Aloud: 12
Read Alone: 12