Book - “Ripple Effect”, Taekema

Best friends Dana and Janelle had big plans for grade six. Run on the cross-country team together. Try out for volleyball. They’d even planned to be partners for the class geography project. Neither girl could have known that a biking accident would land Janelle in the hospital all summer long. Dana is convinced that everything will go back to normal once school starts. But Queen Bee Julia has co-opted her friend, and Janelle’s crutches make running or playing volleyball impossible. Over time, the girls begin to act more and more like strangers. As Dana struggles to come to terms with her feelings of guilt, anger and loneliness, she wonders if there’s anything left of her old friendship that’s salvageable. Can she find her way back to her best friend?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Sylvia Taekema's first novel, Seconds, was voted a Silver Birch Express Award Honour Book. She is also the author of the middle-grade novel Ripple Effect and Running Behind in the Orca Currents line. Sylvia lives in Bracebridge, Ontario.