From the Publisher
Bingham hits the mark with her completely realistic portrait of a strong girl coping with emotional difficulties, taking advantage of her format to include a lyricism that might be lost in straight prose. An absorbing, genuine and uplifting tale of a strong girl making difficult decisions.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Multifaceted supportive characters, both young people and adults, add heft to this novel about a courageous young woman intent on re-creating the richness of the life she led before it was so rudely interrupted.
—Booklist Online
Recommend this novel to teens looking for something that falls somewhere between the poetic melodrama of Ellen Hopkins and the soul-searching realistic fiction of Sarah Dessen.
—School Library Journal
School Library Journal - Audio
11/01/2013
Gr 6–10—It's been a year since the shark attack that cost Jane Arrowood her right arm. Now, as she returns to school with her new prosthesis, she adds the more mundane problems of a high school senior to her recovery regimen. While suffering frequent and debilitating nerve pain, she must find a date for the prom, boost her grades, and struggle with the fact that her mother may be secretly dating. Her biggest dilemma is choosing a school. She had always planned to go to art school, but her drawing hand was lost in the shark attack, and her artistic endeavors with her left hand have not measured up. The alternative is to enroll in nursing school to learn a profession for which she has a great deal of admiration since her accident. A new boyfriend adds another wrinkle to an increasingly complicated life, as does the possibility of another surgery. Like Shark Girl (2007), this sequel (2013, both Candlewick) is told in present tense verse, though listeners will not likely notice the pattern of poetry. Instead, they will hear the poems as very short, titled chapters. Kate Reinders turns in an excellent characterization of Jane, using inflection to highlight the difference between Jane's utterances and her frequent unspoken thoughts. Her youthful voice is well-suited for the part. Listeners who made a connection with Jane in Shark Girl will enjoy the sequel, but it lacks the raw simplicity and emotional punch of the first book.—Lisa Taylor, Ocean County Library, NJ
Kirkus Reviews
This sequel to Shark Girl (2007) chronicles Jane's recovery from her injuries. The verse format enhances the affecting story as Jane struggles with boyfriends and with her future: Will she become a nurse or continue as an artist even though she has lost her drawing hand? Her artwork continues to improve, but she feels obligated to give back to others what she received from the doctors and nurses who saved her life when she lost her right arm to a shark. She receives letters, interspersed throughout the book with no comment, from strangers who have been following her story. Do these influence her? Meanwhile she struggles in her science class, finally hiring a tutor who turns out to be Max, "the heartthrob who got away" in the last book. Max loves swimming, however, and when Jane decides to go with him to the pool, she finds that she can't cope emotionally with being near water again. Meanwhile she faces another difficult decision: whether or not to undergo more hated surgery to cure the neuroma that's causing excruciating pain in her phantom limb. Bingham hits the mark with her completely realistic portrait of a strong girl coping with emotional difficulties, taking advantage of her format to include a lyricism that might be lost in straight prose. An absorbing, genuine and uplifting tale of a strong girl making difficult decisions. (Fiction/verse. 12 & up)
