Soul Surfer Book Review

Soul Surfer Book review

My daughter, Sami wrote a book report this week after reading the Soul Surfer book (affiliate link). Today she is at home for “Bring Your Kid to Work Day,” so we decided to post her book report on my blog.

Soul Surfer Book review

Soul Surfer Book Review

The book “Soul Surfer” is an inspiring story of a girl who lost her arm in a shark attack and nearly died. Bethany Hamilton was only 13 when she was attacked.

Bethany Hamilton

Bethany Hamilton (Photo credit: Kanaka Menehune)

The story starts off with Bethany and her mom, Cheri, getting up early to go find some heat (waves) to surf. They didn’t have much luck. When they were about to give up Bethany saw her best friend Alana and her dad, Holt, pulling up. Bethany decided to stay with Alana.

They were just relaxing on their boards in the middle of the ocean, Bethany’s left arm just chilling in the water. Then suddenly she saw a big grey blob approaching her. She managed to stay very calm, just looked away thinking nothing was going to happen.

Soul Surfer (film)

Soul Surfer (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Soul Surfer Shark Attack

Then as she heard that mouth open and coming for her, it bit her and her board. The water was bright red and as she screamed and screamed. She was rushed to immediate surgery; nothing was left but only 3-4 inches of her arm. She lost almost 50% of her blood.

After the surgery and when Bethany was allowed to have visitors. So many people had brought her flowers, balloons, stuffed animals, and such. Bethany had too many flowers that she made a garden in her hospital room. She kept picturing herself surfing again but thinking it might not happen ever again.

Bethany Hamilton

Bethany Hamilton (Photo credit: Kanaka Menehune)

Almost a month later Bethany was up on her board training to surf again. Sooner or later, she was training for the 2005 NSSA National Championships! Boy did she make it far. After all of that hard work Bethany landed 1st place in the NSSA Championships.

Pro Surfer

Bethany Hamilton is now a pro surfer, and is ranked on top of all women in the world, she is also received the 2004 teen choice award for Courage and the 2004 ESPY award for Best Comeback Athlete, Bethany launched Friends of Bethany and is dedicated to making people believe anything is possible if you just try.

2 Comments

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  • She is referring to when they were calling for lifeguards and none were on duty. Writing these book reports is a learning process for kids and they tend to not elaborate on details always.

    And the 70% was actually a typo when she typed it up from her notes and according to the book, it was almost 50%.

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