He tells her: ‘”But, little one, don’t you understand, you don’t see letters or numbers the way other people do. Mr Falker turns on all the children bullying and teasing her and says “Stop – are all of you so perfect that you can look at another person and find fault with her?” With his help she begins to work on her reading and writing. You’ll find it hard not to cry when reading this section!įinally the arrival of a wonderfully inspiring new teacher in Grade 5 literally changes her life.
Her desperation and suffering are palpable and the realistic illustrations bring home her deep unhappiness. She begins to hate school and pretends she has a sore throat or a stomach ache so she can stay at home. Trish hopes she can make a fresh start but things get worse and she is bullied and called names like dumbo. On her grandparents farm in Michigan she feels safe and loved but the refuge doesn’t last, when her grandparents die, her family move to a new city. She is very good at drawing but everything else is a challenge for her and she starts to believe she is dumb. She battles to make columns of numbers in maths. The letters seem to wriggle and refuse to form words she can read. It gets worse – by the time she is in Grade 3 she is pretending to read, and feeling desperate that she can’t. When she gets to grade 1 she is puzzled that the other children move on to other readers while she stays stuck on the beginning reader.
Trisha’s wonderful grandfather takes a book and pours honey over it, telling her that knowledge is sweet, but to get to the sweetness, she has to read through the book. In this story a little girl grows up with huge excitement about learning to read.
0 kommentar(er)
