SMALL STEPS The Year I Got Polio

What was it like to transform from a healthy 12-year-old to a young girl paralyzed by polio in just the space of a few days? In her fictionalized memoir, children's author Peg Kehret traces this journey and the following months of rehabilitation in 1949. Kehret's account is riveting in large part due to narrator Susan Boyce. Neither sentimental nor saccharine, Boyce moves steadily through the details of the trying days. As Peg, she uses pause and emphasis to illuminate the moments of deep fear, of understanding and acceptance, and of increasing determination. Boyce also voices the worry of Peg's parents, stress on the part of nurses (for example, when her parents insist on a chocolate milkshake), and both the optimism and discouragement of fellow patients. A.R. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2013]