Codell, Esme Raji. Sahara Special
April 1st 2003 by Disney-Hyperion
Sahara is bright and loves to read and write, but after she
turns in no work in the fifth grade and her teacher uncovers a bunch of sad
letters to her father (who has abandoned the family), Sahara is given a tutor
to work with in the hallway, leading the other students to call her “Sahara
special”. When the tutor also has to work with recalcitrant and possibly
violent Darrell, Sahara’s mother has her moved back to the regular classroom
and Sahara has to repeat 5th grade. The children in class seem a
little nicer, and the teacher is unconventional (we know this because she wears
weird clothes, purposefully doesn’t read student files, and publically
acknowledges that textbooks make good paperweights). Sahara still doesn’t do
much work, but eventually Ms. Pointy (Poitier) gets through to her and Sahara
is on her way to doing better in school and becoming a writer.
Strengths: The only indication we have that Sahara is not a
white student is the tiny picture on the cover, but we can still count this as
diverse because she struggles in school. There are not too many books that deal
with the emotions of being identified as a special education student. Perhaps
in the years since this book has been published, both the way students are
treated and the stigma involved in educational help have changed, but I’m sure
that our students all know what “testing brush-ups” mean. Like school related
books such as Because of Mr. Terupt, differences
are celebrated and students are encouraged to succeed.
Weaknesses: This book is very slow paced and only mildly
funny. It’s the sort of book that teachers seem to like, but which students
find less than enthralling. On a personal level, it just kind of annoyed me.
Most of the time, in my school, we want students to feel bad about themselves
and try everything within our power to embarrass them and make them not
succeed. *Sigh*NO! Does Ms. Poitier know
how much effort goes in to writing the reports about students that she refuses
to look at?
No comments:
Post a Comment