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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Oct 2015, 368 pages
Paperback:
Dec 2016, 368 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Bradley Sides
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Cammie McGovern follows up her breakout young adult debut, Say What You Will, with this powerful and unforgettable novel about learning from your mistakes, and learning to forgive. Told in alternating points of view, A Step Toward Falling is a poignant, hopeful, and altogether stunning work that will appeal to fans of Jennifer Nevin, Robyn Schneider, and Jandy Nelson.
Emily has always been the kind of girl who tries to do the right thing - until one night when she does the worst thing possible. She sees Belinda, a classmate with developmental disabilities, being attacked. Inexplicably, she does nothing at all.
Belinda, however, manages to save herself. When their high school finds out what happened, Emily and Lucas, a football player who was also there that night, are required to perform community service at a center for disabled people. Soon, Lucas and Emily begin to feel like maybe they're starting to make a real difference. Like they would be able to do the right thing if they could do that night all over again. But can they do anything that will actually help the one person they hurt the most?
Emily
At our first meeting with the director of the Life-long Learning Center, Lucas doesn't speak to me once. Elaine, the director, thanks us for "volunteering our time" even though she knows we aren't here voluntarily. We all
know this.
"You have a choice," she says. "You can come in Saturday mornings and do office work or you can come Wednesday evenings for a class called Boundaries and Relationships that goes over basic rules about socializing and dating for young adults with developmental disabilities. Even though you're a few years younger, you'll provide examples of a typical peer's approach to friendships and dating. They'll be interested in what you do on dates and how you go about making new friends, that kind of thing."
I can just imagine what my friend Richard will say when I tell him this: "Wait, they're looking at you as a dating role model?"
I turn and look at Lucas. I expect him to say, "I'll take the office work, please." All things considered...
McGovern expertly mixes sentimentality with grit, and she gets the balance just right. What she’s painted here is a beautiful portrait of a real teenage world that is capable of hopefulness and healing...continued
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(Reviewed by Bradley Sides).
Aristotle once said, "Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all." Those words were uttered nearly 2,400 years ago, but they are still relevant today. Education that gives meaning is the kind of learning that we remember. Today, art education is one place where teenagers learn about the world surrounding them and the more personal world within themselves. The arts capture our hearts, and this early introduction to creativity instills passions that can last a lifetime.
The power of the arts takes center stage in Cammie McGovern's A Step Toward Falling. McGovern's novel tells the story of Belinda, a cognitively disabled youth, who is assaulted during a high school football game. She suffers from the trauma ...
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