Leap

By Jane Breskin Zalben

Book Overview

Daniel says: life caused me to grow up fast. Real fast. Like overnight. Krista says: The real me--the one who knew I should treat Daniel the way I'd want to be treated--was angry at the other me. I... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375838716
• ISBN13: 9780375838712
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.9" x 6.0"
• Age Range: 10 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 9

Customer Reviews

Leap

We enjoyed this book immensely! I read it with my preteen grandson. The characters were rich. The storyline believable and full of emotion. We liked how it was told from the point of view of two different characters. I would highly recommend it!

Leap and the Net Will Appear

"Leap and the net will appear" (Zen saying) leap (leep) V: to spring, jump, bound, transition It took me a few days after finishing LEAP by Jane Breskin Zalben to finally know how I felt about it. When I read about this book I was sure I wanted it. I was very excited about reading it. When I began to read, the first few chapters I really liked. Well...it's not as if I HATE this book. It's hard to describe, because there's parts and bits of it I LOVED. It's like there was quite a bit of...excess, unnecessary things that the story could have done without. Like, for example, these to twelve-year-olds (Bobby Kaufman and Lainie Michaels) making out at Bobby Kaufman's party. I mean, come on, they're twelve. I really loved the character of David and Krista. The story alternates between their two voices. I liked the idea of loss through life; through growing up and wide apart. It's realistic, you know, because by the time kids are really learning the difference between boys and girls, the friendship just sort of deteriorates. Daniel and Krista just fell away from each other, despite the roots of their friendship stemming back to when they were five (Krista narrates): "Since Daniel and I stopped being friends, there are images of him that I can't get out of my head. Daniel is sitting next to me in the sandbox on our first day of kindergarten. Someone spills sand on me and I start to cry. Daniel leans over, flicks the grains away from my eyelids with his finger, finds a used tissue in the pocket of his overalls, and wipes the tears streaming down my cheeks. I'm impressed even at five years old. So we become inseperable. We eat lunch together. Have play dates. Pick each other for teams." When Daniel, a great swimmer, is in a horrible accident leaving him paralyzed (becaue of his best friend, Bobby Kaufman's father) he has to go through therapy and walk with a walker. AND he has to learn how to swim all over again, which a devastating and depressing prospect for both David and his caring and deeply concerned parents. I loved the character of Daniel's mother. So, Krista's father, Dr. Harris, whom is a physical thearapist, helps David. It isn't as if there's this thick stone wall bewteen Krista and Daniel. Whenever he comes over to her father's home-office, they say hello and talk. Then, slightly reluctantly, one day, Krista agrees to help Daniel learn to swim all over again, depsite her huge crush on Bobby Kaufman. She doesn't want to have to choose sides between Bobby and Daniel, though, to me, that was really dumb of her because Daniel is a great guy and Bobby just was NOT a particularly awesome human being AND obviously liked another girl, the popular girl of course, Lainie Michaels (whom surprised me, since by the end I understood and really liked). I didn't get her fascination or infatuation with him. Daniel feels like he's going backward when he wants so badly to be moving forward, as does Krista, due to the fact that she's becoming friends with

Leap

Leap is a perfect name for this novel about adolescents coming of age and making painful transitions in their lives. The story is told in two voices, Krista and Daniel's. These characters used to be inseparable until puberty got in the way. Now Krista has a crush on Daniel's one time best friend, Bobby, the school "hunk." In the summer before middle school, Daniel has a seemingly minor operation and ends up paralyzed. Bobby's father performed the operation, so Daniel and Bobby are no longer even speaking to each other. The book explores the themes of friendship, loyalty, and empathy as Daniel begins to heal from his injury and his friends rally to help him. Once he is on the road to recovery, his mother decides to leave the family to explore her own individuality, taking her own "leap." The characters are well drawn and the plot of the book is compelling. The situations the adolescents find themselves in accurately depict real life for middle school students. The characters do briefly refer to themselves as Jewish. In one incident in the novel, Krista refuses to get a tattoo because of her grandparents' concentration camp mark. Other than that the book is not overtly Jewish, but the major themes of compassion for those in need, responsibility for visiting the sick, and being a moral person are the backbone of this novel and speak directly to those looking for a book that exemplifies those mitzvot without preaching. Ages 10- 14.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Krista and Daniel were inseparable from the first day of kindergarten on. Swimming lessons, play dates, they did everything together. Until Valentine's Day in third grade. Krista got a box of chocolates and an unsigned love note. There's no way of knowing for sure who it came from, but Krista is convinced it was Bobby. It almost doesn't really even matter anymore because since that day, Krista has had the crush of her life on Bobby. Two-and-a-half years, and it hasn't gone away, and she's no closer to dating him than she was at the beginning. She should have asked Daniel about it back then, when should have equaled could have, when they were still best friends. But around the beginning of fourth grade it somehow became not cool to be best friends with someone of the opposite sex. So Krista found Sandy and Gina, and Daniel became best friends with Bobby. Krista still has the box and the note, though! The day after the end of fifth grade changes everything for Daniel, and eventually for Krista, too. Daniel goes to have dental work done, and a freak accident happens. Now he'll need a lot of physical therapy to even get back to being functional. Who knows if he'll ever be able to be a competitive swimmer again? To make matters worse, his dentist was Bobby's dad. Which causes all sorts of problems. Add in his mom's inability to deal with the whole thing, and Daniel's not sure what his future looks like. It's a pretty tough thing to contemplate when you're only in sixth grade. Krista vows to help her once best friend. But intending to and wanting to help are easier things to say than do. Does helping Daniel mean she's picking him over Bobby? What does helping, or not helping, say about her as a person? Why is it so hard to be around Daniel? How can she talk to him? This story is a snapshot of a time in life that's hard enough without major obstacles. Figuring out how to relate to the opposite sex is a constant battle that starts around third grade and for some people it doesn't end for the next twenty years! It's made even harder because previous to that it was completely normal to be friends with the people that you don't even know how to talk to now. I still don't know exactly what it is that changes everything. With the accident as an obstacle, it also becomes a story about defining yourself at any age. A person's actions and reactions say a lot about who they are, but they can also easily be misinterpreted. This book deals with a confusing time in life, but it does so very openly and honestly. It could very easily have gotten depressing, or melodramatic, or lost in a message. Thankfully it never does. Instead you walk away from it feeling like you got a glimpse into life from a full perspective. Like for the first time you got to see the full picture of a piece of time. It's a good thing. Reviewed by: Carrie Spellman

LEAP tells of changed friendships, romance, and idealistic visions, and is a moving story of change.

Jane Broskin Zalben's LEAP tells of formerly inseparable friends affected by an accident which leaves one temporarily paralyzed. Daniel and Krista had drifted apart: now Krista might be the link Daniel needs to return to the world of normalcy. LEAP tells of changed friendships, romance, and idealistic visions, and is a moving story of change.