Every now and then I read a book like this just to make sure that my heart isn't really made of stone. This is the kind of book that keeps you weepy throughout, both with Jessica's despair and depression straight through her recovery and the kindness of her friends. 
 Jessica is on her way home from a track meet (at which she ran her best race ever) when the team bus is hit by a truck hauling cars to junkyard. In the accident, one of her teammates is killed, and Jessica loses her right leg below the knee. She's devastated by the loss--without her leg, she'll never run again, never feel the cool air on her face as she races into the wind. Her teammates have different ideas, though: they start fund-raising for the "Help Jessica Run" campaign, hoping to earn enough money to buy her a running prosthesis. 
 It's the power of friendships, the old friends and the new, that help her through the healing process, and help her see herself as she always did: as a runner first, not a disability. 
 (on the WMS summer reading list; with two weeks to go until the school year starts I figured I should read it.)