girl overboard Justina Chen Headley relationships/ stereotyping/identity
Little Brown and Company pp.; 339. ISBN-10- 0316-001129-0
One might dismiss the book as simply about a female snowboarder, but it is much more. It deals with serious issues of family relationships, living with considerable wealth and dealing with people’s own views of you as you endeavor to define yourself. Syrah is from a wealthy Chinese family who disapproves of her snowboarding even though she does so at a professional level. Due to a serious accident, she must learn to trust herself and to establish an identify within a family that seems at every turn not to want her. Struggling to find her voice, she must learn important and difficult lessons. Learning, however, does not come without pain, mistakes, and regrets. This is an excellent story. The characters and their conflicts are well drawn and carefully thought through.
