Verena Mansour

Book Review #2

Period 4

14 December 2016

 

The Running Dream

Wendlin Van Draanen

Realistic fiction

332 Pages

Schneider award

The novel, The Running Dream, by Wendlin Van Draaneen is about a girl named Jessica who is a senior at Langston High school. Jessica loves running but her dreams are crushed when she gets in an accident. Running was Jessica’s life but after that bad accident, not only her dreams, but also her leg got crushed. Jessica knew she would get a prosthetic leg on which she can walk on again but she doesn’t care she wants to run. That accident really changed her life the people that Jessica didn’t know high-fived her but the people she knew acted like they didn’t know her and acted as if she was invisible. When Jessica sat in the back of the classroom because there was no space for a wheelchair in the front of the classroom that’s when she met Rosa who was also in a wheelchair but little did they both know they were going to be best friends. Rosa told Jessica that she had always wanted to run through a finish line but since she was paralyzed she can barely even walk. Jessica felt that they had a lot in common but the only thing that was different was that Rosa was in a wheelchair her whole life. Jessica’s team wanted to raise enough money to buy Jessica a prosthetic running leg but it is expensive. Jessica also has always had a crush on this boy named Gavin they got closer and started dating towards the end of the book. After a lot of bake sales and fundraisers Jessica’s team was able to raise enough money for her to be able to get the prosthetic leg. And the first thing she used it for was to make Rosas dream come true. Jessica made a marathon just for Rosa., and both Jessica and Rosa lived up their dreams. And the end of the story was like a fairy tale they lived happily ever after.

                                    I really enjoyed the book The Running Dream a lot because it showed friendship and bravery. I really like the main character of the book Jessica she cares for others while she’s really hurt herself. For example, she wants to take Rosa to run a marathon when she only has one leg she did end up doing it but it took a lot of money so she can get a running prosthetic leg. I also really like how Jessica’s team stayed with her through it all and helped her raise enough money for her to start running again which I thought was nice and sweet. Jessica also had this crush on a boy but he was already with someone from her team but they still ended up together but when she was in the hospital he called her and asked about her which she was very thankful for. He is also the main reason Jessica started running he wrote a news article about her and many people started donating but she didn’t find out it was him until the end of the story. Jessica was really depressed at some moments because she couldn’t do anything and she just stayed home one of the things Jessica said which made me sad was “behind all the morphine dreams is the nightmare of reality that I can’t face.” When she said that I got sad and was thankful for something so simple as my two legs. Another thing Jessica was upset about was all the bills that were stressing her parents out that even got her madder she once walked in on her dad and mom saying “how are we going to pay these hospital bills there are so many of them. That made Jessica really sad and she felt really bad for her parents because they were struggling because her. I really like the end of this book very much because it taught me to be thankful for all my limbs. I also like the ending where no matter how hurt Jessica is she makes Rosa dream come true and her dream was to run through a marathon by that time Jessica had her prosthetic running leg and she was getting used to it but she still managed to make other people happy. The thing I really liked about Jessica was that she was a very selfless person I know I keep saying that but it’s true. I honestly don’t think there was anything I would change in this book it was really good and I really liked how it was written and it showed me that bad things do happen but good things always come after. I would really recommend this book for anyone who likes non-fiction books they are honestly the only thing I read because I enjoy them very much.