Blade Girl: The One-Legged Runner

One year after losing her leg, 16-year-old Rin is tired-tired of the painful physical therapy, tired of being treated differently, and tired of her stupid, heavy, awkward prosthetic leg. All that changes when she encounters the Blade Runners, a group of one-legged athletes who run with “blades”-carbon fiber prosthetics specialized for competitive running-made by their gifted prosthetist, Kazami. The blades are light, flexible, and formidably difficult to control-Rin can barely walk with one, much less sprint. But as she tumbles to the ground again and again, she rediscovers many of the things that she’d forgotten, and finds a new goal: to compete in the Paralympics. [Kodansha]