When Amy trains for the Novice Canadian Figure Skating Championship she knows the stakes are high. If she does well, she's one step closer to the Olympics; if she doesn't, she's convinced her parents will stop paying for her skating lessons.

One day in practice she falls, hard. Afraid she'll miss the championship, she doesn't tell her coach about the screaming pain in her right knee. As the day approaches, however, it gets worse and worse until it threatens to end her skating dreams.

Leap of Faith shows the extremes to which competitive ambition can drive young athletes, and the consequences that follow.

Michele Martin Bossley was born in Boston, Massachusetts, but grew up in Calgary, Alberta. Her sixth grade teacher encouraged her to write down the stories she enjoyed creating, but it wasn't until high school that Michele really began to consider writing as a career. She graduated from the University of Calgary in 1991, and began working seriously on writing children's books.

Michele is the author of eighteen novels for young people. Ten of her books have been chosen by the Canadian Children's Book Centre for the Our Choice list. Others have been nominated for the Manitoba and Alberta Reader's Choice Award, and she was runner-up for the 1997 Writer's Guild of Alberta R. Ross Annett Children's Literature award.

Many of Michele's books focus on different sports. As a former athlete, she was involved in synchronized swimming in her teens and competitive swimming in university. She has also coached young swimmers, in addition to coaching her twin sons' soccer and hockey teams, and draws on much of that experience for her books.

A frequent speaker at writing conferences and schools, Michele divides her time between writing and parenting her four sons. She lives in Calgary, Alberta.

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