Reaching For Sun

Zimmer, Tracie Vaughn. 2007. Reaching for Sun.

Josie Wyatt, a seventh grader with cerebral palsy, is tired of feeling different. She's tired of her special ed classes. She's tired of the occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy. She wants--just for once--for her mother to treat her like she's normal.

Poppies

When poppies first
push themselves
out of the ground
they look like a weed--
hairy, grayish, saw-toothed foliage--
easily a member
of the ugly family.

When I push
sounds from my mouth
it's not elegant either.
I wrestle to wrap
my lips
around syllables,
struggle with my tongue
to press the right points.

When poppies bloom
the same red
as a Chinese wedding dress--
satiny cups with ruffled edges,
purplish black eyes--
they're a prize for patience,
and if I take all that trouble
to say something,
I promise
to try
to make it worth
the wait too.

(p. 43-44)

Josie is being raised by her mother and grandmother on a small farm. Reaching for Sun follows the family through a course of a year as each family member changes and grows. When the book opens, Josie feels excluded and left out. She has no friends her own age--although she doesn't lack for older friends. But in the spring time, the warmth of the sun brings along a new friend, one her own age, Jordan. The summer brings changes as well. Some more unexpected than others. But together this family can make it through anything and everything. With patience AND love.

Reaching for Sun is a verse novel, a very good verse novel. I do recommend this one!!!

And for the record, add this one to the growing stack of 2007 books with the theme of lying/deception.