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"The worst thing about losing my leg is that I'll never be able to run like I used to," mourns 16-year-old Meghan, as she rages in the hospital against the consequences of her life-altering surgery. Teens who look beyond the opaque title of this book will find a stunning first novel inside, one that is absorbing and imaginatively crafted. Meghan, whose passion was running, is full of fury at ... More

"The worst thing about losing my leg is that I'll never be able to run like I used to," mourns 16-year-old Meghan, as she rages in the hospital against the consequences of her life-altering surgery. Teens who look beyond the opaque title of this book will find a stunning first novel inside, one that is absorbing and imaginatively crafted. Meghan, whose passion was running, is full of fury at everything: the cancer that claimed her leg; the grim father she calls The Banker; her mother's death; the Vietnam War that destroyed her brother's mind; the psychologist who tries to help her; the prosthesis she disdains as "Rent-a-Leg"--even her best friend, who, not yet knowing about the surgery, sent her the supremely ironic gift of a beautiful pair of running shoes. In short chapters, many only a page or so, Meghan mulls over her loss with bitter wit, recites grisly litanies of historical limb loss (ranging from saints' relics to Civil War amputations), and puts up a tough front for her little sister. Having no one else in whom she is willing to confide, Meghan asks the hard questions in unmailed postcards to her idol, Abraham Lincoln, and finds comfort at last in a drug-induced vision of his homespun wisdom. Savvy teen readers will be reminded of Cynthia Voigt's Izzy, Willy-Nilly, a somewhat gentler treatment of this theme. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell

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