Good question!
One of my nephews has a fantastic school reading list this year – books about all kinds of children, and a number of them about children with disabilities. One is the fantastic Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling, about a girl born without arms. So good! And it has a sequel: Momentus Events in the LIfe of a Cactus.
Another, Restart by Gordon Korman, is about a middle schooler who falls off a roof and is diagnosed with amnesia. and My Own Lightening by Lauren Wolk about a girl who is struck by lightening.
My favorite, though, is a book called Wish by Barbara O’Conner. Wish is a story about a little girl named Charlie who is great at making wishes. She knows as many ways to make a wish as Bubba knows how to cook shrimp (“broil it, bake it…deep fried, stir fried…shrimp stew…”)…
Charlie is sent to live with her aunt and uncle in a rural mountain town. She’s not happy, for a number of reasons, but there she is assigned a “backpack buddy” – Howard. Howard is a quiet kid with an “up down walk.” He doesn’t seem to have friends at school, many of the kids make fun of him, and his house is pretty run down. But he becomes a great friend to Charlie. And he’s not too shabby at wishing, either. SPOILER ALERT: He makes a wish, and it’s not to get rid of his up down walk. Or red hair. Or get a bigger house. I heart Howard.
So, if I lost you for a minute there, I named this blog based on something I read in a wonderful children’s book. I do go to PT, but I my up down walk will always be a part of me (inside, anyway). 🙂
Up Down Walk with Lisa 