Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

Kehret, Peg. (1996). Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio. Illinois: Albert Whitman & Company.

Annotation: Peg thinks she has gotten a bad case of the flu when she spikes a high fever and starts having muscle spasms. Little did she know, at twelve years old, her life would be changed forever. Peg walks us through her journey with polio to the triumph in the end.

Justification for Rejection: For an autobiography of someone not famous per se, this book was wonderful. It was an easy read, and keeps the readers interest peaked throughout. However, I am not nominating this book, because I do not feel it would be a very popular choice.

Polio is not something teenagers today can feel or see the effects of. Because teenagers are not faced with the hardships of polio now, I don’t feel this would be a book of choice for them. I don’t think I even really knew what polio was until a few semesters ago when I had to do a report on the polio vaccine. I did not understand the intensity of it until then.

This book was eye opening for me. It walks through the course of the disease from a first person perspective and really captivates your emotions. You really get connected to Peg and want to “see” her walk again someday too!

Genre: Autobiography/Biography/Memoir