Freewheeling

A novel stands or falls on its prose, its plot, its willingness to ask hard questions and show readers the world in all its complexity. Freewheeling by American author Jamie Sumner does exactly that. The narrator is Ellie, a girl who must leave her city mid-school year and move in with her grandparents to help them out. It's a disorienting leap into the unknown. And it's made harder by the fact that Ellie has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. How does the world see us? Who gets to decide what we're worth looking at? In the absolute tangle of adolescence, where do you find solid ground? Is it strength or surrender to open yourself to others—at any age? Freewheeling speaks to everyone, because it's about everyone. Does living in a wheelchair rather than on your feet really create an unbridgeable divide?