Air by Monica Roe

Seventh grader Emmie has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair. She likes to go fast and do tricks with her wheels and hopes to one day compete as in the wcmx. However, when a mishap on a poorly made ramp at school results in her tumbling out of her chair, the school thinks she needs an aid to follow her around. Emmie bristles under this, as her late mom had finally convinced the school she no longer needed one. She tries in vain with the help of her friends to make life miserable for the woman, in the hopes she’ll quit while simultaneously trying to raise money through her online shop to buy herself a set of racing wheels so that the school will finally see her as capable. When the aid finds out about the new chair, the school suddenly wants to help with a fundraiser raising complicated feelings for Emmie on weather she should accept the help and weather or not the school will ever see her as capable. With the help of her friends, and some encouragement from an older costumer of hers, Emmie sets out to prove to the school she can do things for herself.

Emmie’s principal is the clear “villain” of the novel. He is so concerned about her getting around school in her chair and worried she will hurt herself that he doesn’t see that perhaps the faulty ramp and the lack of accessibility in the school are the problem, not that she uses wheels. He’s also worried about liability if she or others get hurt with Emmie’s constantly popping wheelies and going fast, which is understandable, but not an excuse for not seeing that her wheels are her legs and her independence. He thinks he’s doing the right thing with the aid and the fundraiser, instead of fixing the building issues. I kind of love the moment at the end where he can’t explain to the reporters whey he didn’t fix the issues yet.

However, Emmie is partly to blame for her accident and it takes her most of the novel to acknowledge this. There’s a time and place for the wheelies and going fast with her wheels, and school isn’t a place to be doing that in the halls, although it’s more likely she’d collide with another student and hurt them than hurt herself. She can acknowledge immediately that the shoddy ramp with it’s uneven boards and warped handrail is the blame, but not that she took too fast. But she is only twelve. She does do a final trick in the end where she does a back flip off the stage when she insists the school use the money they raised not to help her get a new chair but the make the front doors of the school accessible for her and another wheelchair using student and fix the ramps. But she does admit she should save the tricks for other places.

I wish this one had a bit more depth to the other characters though or was a bit longer to flesh out the family relationships. The maternal grandmother doesn’t approve of her dad and how he raises Emmie now, and thinks she should dress and act a certain way, especially since she’s disabled (this is briefly mentioned). It was a point of contention between the mother and grandmother, and is between Emmie her dad and Grandmother, but the reasons and history aren’t discussed making the grandmother’s acquiescence to Emmie wearing what she wants in the end not as fulfilling in my book.

Most of the time for relationships is given to Emmie and her dad’s struggles without her mom, and his worry over her potentially hurting herself on the backyard ramps and pipes he previously made for his one skatebaording use. Emmie doesn’t understand his fear of loosing her too, and the two have to work this out. She also comes into conflict with her best friend who accuses Emmie of only wanting to do her thing, the tricks, and seeing the friend’s interest in beekeeping as boring and not wanting to fully support her in it. Again, they have to work this out, and they do.

This is on only three and a half lightsabers as I think it could have been a bit longer and needed some fleshing out of some characters and plot points. It just didn’t wow me they way I was hoping for after the good things I’ve heard. It is definitely good representation and written by a therapist, it should be. It illustrates well how a wheelchair user is just as capable and how to properly help and when is even discussed.