Customer Reviews

Leap

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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 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.

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

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.