Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

Author	Peg Kehret
Illustrator	Wyatt Bechdel
Language	English
Subject	Polio
Genre	Memoir
Published	1996 (Albert Whitman & Company)
Publication place	United States
Pages	179
Awards	Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Golden Kite Award Mark Twain Readers Award
ISBN	0-8075-7457-0

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio is a memoir of author Peg Kehret's childhood experience of polio. ^[1] The book won the Golden Kite Award in 1997.

Characters

• Peg: Main character and narrator of the story, diagnosed with polio.
• Karen: Peg's best friend at school
• Tommy: Peg's hospital roommate at University Hospital, in an iron lung.
• Renee: Sheltering Arms roommate, who goes home for Christmas.
• Shirley: Sheltering Arms roommate, who has the worst polio and likes marshmallows. She dies from Polio five years after the events of the book.
• Alice: Sheltering Arms roommate, who has been there for ten years. Her parents didn't want to take care of her because she was so badly crippled, and she became a ward of the state. She dies from cancer in 1993.
• Dorothy: Sheltering Arms roommate, who longs to be in leg braces to go home. She is able to return home because her family builds her a ramp.
• Mrs. Crab: Peg's physical therapist at University Hospital, whom Peg doesn't like. She gives her Torture Time: hot packs and stretching. Peg highly disliked her.
• Art: Peg's older brother whom Dorothy adores. Art is a college student.
• Dr. Bevis: Peg's doctor at University Hospital. Peg promises to walk for him one day.
• Miss. Ballard: Peg's physical therapist at Sheltering Arms that Peg is very fond of and she is also very good friends with Peg's parents.
• Kenny: A boy who plays in the Christmas pageant who helped Peg. He was going to be discharged the day after that.
• Mom: Peg's supportive mother
• Dad: Peg's supportive father
• B.J.: Peg's dog who almost got locked in the basement when she returned home for Christmas.

Settings

The story takes place in Peg's school, Peg's house, at the Sheltering Arms, and at the University Hospital beginning in 1949.

Reception

Small Steps won the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award, ^[2] the Golden Kite Award in 1997 and the Mark Twain Readers Award in 1997.

References

1. "Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio". Kirkus Reviews. 1996-10-01. Retrieved 2019-11-19.
2. The Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Archived 2003-04-29 at the Wayback Machine