When I was in first grade, we were assigned new seats one day and Mrs. Edwards placed me next to Michael. Michael had had polio, so he wore braces on his legs. Braces that clanked and made noise. Braces that scared me.
I began to cry. My teacher asked me what was wrong, but I was too embarrassed to tell her that I was afraid that sitting next to him would make me have to wear braces, too.
I have thought about that incident for many, many years. I didn't dislike Michael. I was scared of his body and that it was different from mine. Today, I think there are so many books that open students up to people whose bodies differ from ours. We can read them with our students and have honest conversations about our wonderings and our fears.
A Blind Guide to Stinkville by Beth Vrabel is one of those books.
Alice has albinism, which means her skin is hypersensitive to the sun. It also means she has nystagmus, a condition where your eyes make rapid, uncontrolled movements. She's considered legally blind. So what? She just uses a magnifier to read.
She's just moved to a new town, where she doesn't know the routes to her favorite places, nor are there kids who already know her. So she enlists her dog, Tooter, to be her service animal. She's out to prove that her blindness is part of who she is; it doesn't define her.
Here's my review of this book by an author who gets upper elementary and middle school kids!
- I have a novel study for this book that you can find in my Teachers Pay Teachers store here. Read this book to your students! It will generate a lot of good discussion and a fair amount of giggles. I mean, what kid doesn't like a farting dog?
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