After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away (unabr.)
Jo-Ann Carhart, East Islip Public Library, NY -- School Library Journal, 5/8/2007
6 cassettes or 6 CDs. 6:45 hrs. Recorded Books. 2006 cassette, ISBN 1-4281-2218-4: $49.75; CD, ISBN 1-4281-2223-0: $64.75.
Gr 9 Up–Jenna Abbott, 15, lives with her divorced mother in the suburbs. While driving with her mother across the Tappan Zee Bridge, a distraction causes her mother to hit the guardrail.Her mother is killed, while Jenna is scarred both physically and emotionally. As Jenna comes down from her hospital drug-induced high, she feels pain, sorrow, guilt, and fear. She divides her life into the period before and after the wreck. She rejects her estranged father's request that she move with him to California and goes to live with her aunt, uncle, and younger cousins in New Hampshire whereshe struggles to come to grips with her guilt and to build a new life. After befriending Trina, a rich girl involved with drugs and a rough crowd, Jenna teeters on the brink of becoming entrenched in that culture. It takes several close calls and the sage advice of a complex, seductive, motorcycle-driving classmate to edge Jenna toward recovery. Jennifer Ikeda reads Joyce Carol Oates's novel (HarperCollins, 2006), perfectly channeling the voice of a guilt-ridden, frightened, awkward teenager.She blends sarcasm and earnestness with discomfort and shrillness to bring out the pain and hurt. Older teens will relate to Jenna's vulnerability. Those who enjoyed Where I Want to Be by Adele Griffin (Putnam, 2005) and Blind Faith by Ellen Wittlinger (S & S, 2006) will find this audiobook just as rewarding.
