Shark Girl

by Kelly Bingham

Book Overview

A teenager struggles through physical loss to the start of acceptance in an absorbing, artful novel at once honest and insightful, wrenching and redemptive.

On a sunny day in June, at the beach with her mom and brother, fifteen-year-old Jane Arrowood went for a swim. And then everything -- absolutely everything -- changed. Now she's counting down the days until she returns to school with her fake arm, where she knows kids will...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 076364627X
• ISBN13: 9780763646271
• Release Date: April 2010
• Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 5.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.7" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Shark girl

In this moving free verse novel a 15-year-old Jane is attacked by a shark one day at the beach. The doctors are forced to amputate her right arm. Jane is stricken, she needs her arm to become an artist. Jane is also tired of getting sympathy from people she has never met and being stared at. There also seems to be a riffed between her and her friends. Jane soon begins to wonder what kinds of jobs she will be able to do. Jane struggles and starts to overcome her disabilities step by step. I thought it was a very good and fast read. But i also felt that the end wasn't quite satisfying. I wanted to see Jane accomplish more things. I also thinking writing the book as a free verse might have taken away from the story. I wanted some details on things. If you liked this books you might also like: I Heart You, You Haunt Me

Never Again Whole

Shark Girl is a book about a regular girl like anyone else who one day goes to the beach and ends up leaving the beach with one less arm. She becomes very shy and very self-conscious about the way she looks and feels. Jane,( the main character) becomes best friends with a nine-year-old boy at the hospital. This boy,Justin, really understands Jane having lost a leg himself. They really connect and end up spending a lot of time together after visiting hours are over. This book really is heart-warming and likeable. It really taught me to be gracious and thankful for having all of my limbs. We all usually take having two legs and two arms for granted. This book taught me how to respect those less fortunate, and to appreciate my body as a whole. I also really liked this book because the author uses poems, letters and newspaper clippings to get her message out to her readers. This book is a definate must read!

Shark Girl

Written in poetry form, the novel is a fast read about a girl who goes through the stages of grief and matures as she faces life after loosing her arm in a shark attack. I'm a high school media specialist who purchased the book for my library; but I would recommend it to both teenagers and adults. A wonderful first novel....I read it in one night! Jan

Triumph Over Tragedy

What begins as a typical day at the beach ends in tragedy. While swimming in the ocean, with her mother and older brother looking on, Jane loses her arm to a shark. Needless to say, her life changes forever. While recovering from her loss, she must visit the hospital, the psychiatrist, and the physical therapist in turn. She details these appointments as well as her readjustment to life at home and high school. As different people attempt to heal her body and question her abilities, Jane must try to heal her own spirit and mind. Jane was once an artist, dependent upon that arm, that hand, those fingers to express herself on paper. Her other arm is fine, but her thoughts don't flow as freely down that way, and her other hand and fingers feel awkward, pudgy, unable to capture the pictures in her mind's eye. Everything looks and feels wrong, wrong, wrong. Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham is 95% verse novel, with news clippings, letters, and phone conversations interspersed. At first, Jane feels as though she is maybe half of who she once was - maybe even less - but as she attempts to regain control of her life and regrasp her talents, she starts to feel whole again. This book is 100% heart. Recommended.

You have to read this book!

This is a book you can't put down. The character is strong, likeable, and believable. You will admire her courage and the obstacles she faces in her return to "normal" life. This book is written in prose with letters, conversations and newspaper articles mixed in, which makes it seem so real. You will want to see how Jane overcomes this huge loss and picks up the threads of her life. A heart-warming read!