Guest Review: GIRL OVERBOARD by Justina Chen Headley

It's been a busy week (what week isn't) so I turned today's book review over to my daughter.

She had reviewed GIRL OVERBOARD for her literature class, so I asked her if I could use that review here. (Isn't it nice when your kids can do your work for you?) I bought this book for her after a ski accident left her on crutches for four weeks. Ironically, the book is about a girl who snaps her ACL in a snowboarding accident,and my daughter had it with her at the appointment when we got the MRI results and found out she had the same injury.

I appreciate books that my kids can use to relate to experiences that they're going through, especially when its something that I haven't ever been through. I like to read books with my kids, so I started reading GIRL OVERBOARD, but between trips to the ski hill it somehow got lost.

Before it was lost, I was really enjoying the story and I loved Justina Chen Headley's NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL, (see my blog post, More Than Skin Deep...,) I hope to find and finish the book for myself, until then, you'll have to take my daughter's word for it that this is a great book.

DAUGHTER REVIEW

The book Girl Overboard by Justina Chen Headley is an empowering novel about a girl named Syrah who snaps her ACL when she gets caught in an avalanche while snowboarding. Everyone thinks that Syrah has everything, after all, her dad is Ethan Cheng, the richest man in the world. But really her life sucks. Her (half ) siblings hate her. The only two people in the world that actually understand her the most are being pushed away from her; Age her best friend since kindergarten who originally got her started in snowboarding, and Bao-mu her nanny. Age’s girlfriend Natalie is jealous of their friendship so she doesn’t allow them to hang out with each other very much. And Bao-mu is moving in with her daughter who just had a baby. On top of all that her new friend Lillian has a little sister who has leukemia and needs a bone marrow match if she’s ever going to beat it.

Any one that is “coming to terms” with anything in their life right now will enjoy this book. I can relate to Syrah, because while skiing this winter, I snapped my ACL. Snapping my ACL was and still is really hard on me. I couldn’t walk, open doors, or even carry my own backpack, but worst of all I couldn’t ski or play any sports for that matter. For a lot of people not being able to play sports for a year doesn’t seem like a big deal, but for me it is.

I was able to make a lot of text to self connections, such as how annoying it is that it’s a wound that no one can see. If you’re just walking down the hallway and someone bumps into you, or you step on that leg wrong you shriek in pain and everyone stares at you like you’re some kind of weakling who can’t take a little bump.

GIRL OVERBOARD is a very empowering story about how to come to terms with anything. It’s really cool to see how Syrah’s respect for herself her parents and her siblings grow throughout the story.