Favorite character from book club book

                My favorite character in the book The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen is Jessica.  Jessica has been going through a lot in her life.  She’ s a seventeen year old high school track runner who lost her leg in a tragic accident and may never run again.  Since running is what she loves to do, you can see how this can have a huge effect on her.  I would love to know Jessica because she is so brave.  When your true passion in life is suddenly ripped away from you most anyone would go into a depression, which she did.  She did, however, not stay depressed for too long.  Eventually, she got back to school and kept fighting.  She went back to all those people she had known before when she had two legs and forced a smile on her face.  She even went to cheer on her track team at one of the biggest meets of the year.  Clearly, it was hard for her to sit down and watch her teammates compete and not being able to compete herself, but she did it.  Then, when her team was campaigning to get her a running leg she was courageous enough to stand in front of the street with shorts on and her half a leg visible to all.  She was even brave enough to be interviewed for the news.  You can’t deny that it was incredibly brave for Jessica to go through all this right after losing her leg.  Another reason I would like to know Jessica is that after her accident, she gets a better outlook on life.  There is this one girl in her math class named Rosa. Rosa has cerebral palsy and everyone always overlooks her.  Before Jessica’s accident she never acknowledged Rosa, just like everyone else.  After her accident she started talking to Rosa and realized she was really nice.  They become really good friends and while reading the book you can tell how happy it makes Rosa to not be overlooked for once and have a true friend.  Jessica truly cares for her and I think it’s because in a way she knows how she feels.  Losing her leg makes her know how it feels to get weird stares just like Rosa.  Even though Jessica has one leg and Rosa has cerebral palsy, they’re just like everyone else on the inside.  The friendship is very heartwarming and it helps Jessica better appreciate what she has.  For these reasons my favorite character is Jessica and I would love to know her in person.