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Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Three starred reviews!

A girl with cerebral palsy navigates loss, grief, and the aftermath of trauma following a school shooting in a world that wasn't built for her in this "intimate, lyrical" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) novel in verse from Jamie Sumner, the acclaimed author of Roll with It.
There is a Before and an After for sixth grader Bea Coughlin. Before the shooting at her school that took the lives of her classmates and teacher and After, when she must figure out how to grieve, live, and keep rolling forward. But as her community rallies in a tidal wave of marches and speeches and protests, Bea can't get past the helplessness she felt in her wheelchair as others around her took cover.

Through the help of therapeutic horseback riding, Bea finally begins to feel like herself again. And as she heals, she finds her voice and the bravery to demand change.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from February 10, 2025
      In this sensorial verse novel by Sumner (Deep Water), a disabled eighth grader navigates trauma in the aftermath of a school shooting. Kind and outspoken Bea Coughlin, who lives with cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, confidently advocates for disability accommodations at her small private school. When her teacher and several students are killed during a school shooting, Bea’s sense of safety crumbles (“My loosened leg brace catches/ on the footrest of my chair/ and/ it’s pinning me here!”). The novel is divided into four parts—“Seek,” “Hide,” “Heal,” and “Hope”—that showcase Bea’s life before, during, and after the event via narrative poems and letters addressed to an entity called Sir. Throughout, Bea struggles to understand the incident; intimate, lyrical verse relays her experiences, including her horseback riding therapy and feelings of claustrophobia at being indoors in the days following the shooting. It’s an accessible and cohesive interpretation of what it means to live with grief and find a way to feel like oneself after tragedy, as well as an homage to young voices and their impact on society. Bea reads as white. Ages 10–up.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      It's impossible to hear Erin Moon's delivery of this affecting story without experiencing the same emotions as its first-person protagonist. Bea is a middle-grade student in a small school who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. When a shooter enters the building, she becomes tragically aware of her disadvantaged situation. This novel in verse recounts in present tense the events before, during, and after the shooting. Moon creates a thoroughly likable Bea. Initially, her voice bubbles with the optimism and playful sarcasm of a typical kid. However, her panicked emotions during the shooting are palpable. Listeners will feel helplessness, panic, and dread in Moon's breathless, halting delivery. Afterward, Bea becomes more reticent until loved ones and a therapy horse help her recover and find new strength. L.T. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine

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  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

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