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  • Please Pay Attention by Jamie Sumner book cover
  • Please Pay Attention by Jamie Sumner book cover
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Please Pay Attention

by Jamie Sumner

Grief, access, and finding a voice

$10.91 USD
$18.19 USD $10.91 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Critical praise

    Publishers Weekly starred review

    Starred review; the metadata describes the novel as “intimate, lyrical.”

AlbakiReads Editorial

Grief, access, and finding a voice

Jamie Sumner’s novel in verse centers on Bea Coughlin, a sixth grader with cerebral palsy living with the aftermath of a school shooting that killed classmates and her teacher. The divide between “Before” and “After” shapes her struggle with grief and with the helplessness she experienced during the attack. While her community responds through marches, speeches, and protests, therapeutic horseback riding becomes part of Bea’s path toward feeling more like herself. Her story brings together personal trauma, disability, and a demand for change, connecting recovery with questions of access and whose needs are considered.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers seeking middle-grade fiction about grief and life after trauma.
  • For readers interested in stories featuring a protagonist with cerebral palsy and disability-related access concerns.
  • For readers interested in novels in verse and themes of community protest and change.

Themes

Grief and traumaCerebral palsy and accessibilityCommunity response and protestFinding one’s voice

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Three starred reviews!

A girl with cerebral palsy navigates loss, grief, and the aftermath of trauma following a school shooting in a world that wasn't built for her in this "intimate, lyrical" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) novel in verse from Jamie Sumner, the acclaimed author of Roll with It.

There is a Before and an After for sixth grader Bea Coughlin. Before the shooting at her school that took the lives of her classmates and teacher and After, when she must figure out how to grieve, live, and keep rolling forward. But as her community rallies in a tidal wave of marches and speeches and protests, Bea can't get past the helplessness she felt in her wheelchair as others around her took cover.

Through the help of therapeutic horseback riding, Bea finally begins to feel like herself again. And as she heals, she finds her voice and the bravery to demand change.
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