Another gymnastics one, and yet another recovery-from-injury story. They’re all a little different though. This one is about a girl who sprains her wrist in a fall off her bicycle. She had just joined the high school gymnastics team as an eighth-grader, and is anxious about keeping up her skills level to help the team in an upcoming competition. She has to prove she’s good enough to stay on the team, but the injury is a huge setback. At first she doesn’t listen to the medical advice and tries to do things too soon, causing more wrist pain. Then she remembers to “take it easy”, wear her brace, do the stretching exercises. The coach admonishes her to practice what she can one-armed, visualize the rest, and be present to support her teammates. Some of them are making hurtful and snarky remarks, though. And she feels that her mother is pressuring her to work on piano practice instead, not supporting her gymnastics efforts. Her real passion is for gymnastics, she’s willing to give up piano entirely but then sits down one day to play when her wrist is mostly recovered (not yet strong enough for full gymnastics moves) and realizes she does like the music, how relaxing it is. Conflicted. Rather complex story for how short it was, and a good ending, if a little pat. Some of the way the kids talked to each other didn’t quite feel realistic, but I shrugged it off.
Borrowed from the public library.
