Customer Reviews

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

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I read this book earlier this year and it still lingers in my heart as a touching story filled with courage and hope. The seccond I picked up this book I couldn't set it down! This book makes you realize how hard the patients that have or have had polio had to suffer and how hard it is to recover from this deadly virus. I would reccommend this book to anyone at the drop of a hat.

This novel was so good that I read it 4 times!!! I really liked the metaphors that Peg Keret (the author) used. This book also helped me learn more about Polio. Read this book! I guarantee you'll love it!!! But some of the words in this book may confuse young readers. I even had a hard time with some words in this book!

This is a really great book!!! ive already read it five times now!!! it's really touching and it's just a really good book! i reccommend it to anyone who loves to read because you'll really love to read this book!!!

The Year: I Got Polio is one of the best books I have ever read. I think that you should read the book because if you ever get polio you'll kind of know how it works. Another reason you should read the book is if there's someone in your class or grade that has polio, you should not tease them. If you read this you will know how it might feel for people who have polio. That's why you should read the book The Year: I Got Polio.

Small steps: The Year I Got Polio is an extraordinary book by Peg Kehret. This non-fiction book tells the true story of Pegs struggle to overcome polio. Suddenly at age twelve Peg is paralyzed from the neck down. With the wide spread rumors of what polio is Peg starts out with little hope to survive, let alone to overcome this disease. After the diagnosis is confirmed Peg is brought to a hospital over one hundred miles away from her home. At first Peg is overcome with a fear that can hardly be comforted by her parents and her older brother. After starting out in a hospital designed strictly for polio patients with severe cases, Peg is suddenly moved to THE SHELTERING ARMS (a hospital for polio patients who may have a chance to survive and rehabilitate), there Peg not only gains strength from herself but also from her new roommates and doctors. It is from her new roommates at The Sheltering Arms that she learns what friendship is really about.
This book is a wonderful book that expresses the authorï¿s true thoughts and emotions in such a way that you canï¿t stop reading because you donï¿t know what Peg will be thinking next.

Small steps: The Year I Got Polio is an extraordinary book by Peg Kehret. This non-fiction book tells the true story of Pegs struggle to overcome polio. Suddenly at age twelve Peg is paralyzed from the neck down. With the wide spread rumors of what polio is Peg starts out with little hope to survive, let alone to overcome this disease. After the diagnosis is confirmed Peg is brought to a hospital over one hundred miles away from her home. At first Peg is overcome with a fear that can hardly be comforted by her parents and her older brother. After starting out in a hospital designed strictly for polio patients with severe cases, Peg is suddenly moved to THE SHELTERING ARMS (a hospital for polio patients who may have a chance to survive and rehabilitate), there Peg not only gains strength from herself but also from her new roommates and doctors. It is from her new roommates at The Sheltering Arms that she learns what friendship is really about.
This book is a wonderful book that expresses the author's true thoughts and emotions in such a way that you can't stop reading because you don't know what Peg will be thinking next.

Book Review
Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

The book I read was called Small Steps: The year I got polio. It is an autobiography about peg Kehret, and when she got polio in the seventh grade. It started on homecoming morning; she was building the seventh grade float. Then in the hallway, by her locker she all of the sudden she fainted and woke in the hospital not remembering how she got there or who changed her clothes. Then she went home and fell asleep on her bed for about two hours than woke up and she couldn't move her parents took her back to the hospital to get tested the doctor asked her parents to leave after her parents left the doctor said "After multiple tests... we have came to the conclusion that you are paralyzed from the neck down". What they did to find out if she had polio was to drain some fluid from her spin and tested it for the deadly disease. This all happened in the late 1940's back when there wasn't a vaccine to prevent polio. In 1949 Peg Kehret turned 13. In her long years at he Sheltering Arms hospital she eventually took therapy and started to move her fingers, then parts of her arms then she could move both of her arms. After she could move her upper body she started to exercise her upper body. After about two or three yeas of therapy she started to move her feet and her legs. After another year of therapy she started to walk a little, then a little bit more each time she had therapy. I believe she got to meet Shirley Temple in the ten to twelve years at the Sheltering Arms hospital. I really enjoyed this true story of Peg Kehret

A Review by Erika

Can you imagine being a young child in the hospital unable to move any part of your body? This happened to Peg after she got a disease called Polio. Peg was put in an intensive care unit at the nearest hospital and soon moved to another hospital for more intensive treatment. Peg was trapped inside a machine they refer to as the Iron Lung. After a few months she was released from that hospital only to go back to the one she was at before. But before she left she promised the doctor that she would come back and be able to walk for him. Will peg ever get to walk for him?

I really liked this book because you want to keep reading and its full of excitement and disappointment like when Peg takes her first steps with her new walking sticks. As the story is being told Peg, the patient and the writer, is always telling her feelings and giving you insight to how she felt during that time. The feelings that you have for Peg go from happy to sad and excitement and anticipation, like when Peg first learned that she had Polio. I really like how Peg uses descriptive words and phrases to describe times like her Physical Therapy sessions, she called them Torture Time because the stretching was so stressful and hurt her very week and unused muscles. I personally don't have any complaints about this book, it was great!

I would definitely recommend this book, "Small Steps, The year I got Polio," to teens and older. It's a great easy read and awesome if you like to read reality books. If you like how this book sounds then go check it out!

A Review by Katrina

One day when Peg was a 7th grader she went to school excited because that was the day of her homecoming parade She was walking down the hallway when all of a sudden her legs gave out. Peg didn't go to the parade that day instead she laid in her bed awaiting a doctors visit. Peg was diagnosed with three different types of polio. Peg struggled with many battles breathing, sitting, eating, and walking, but through it all she was a very strong little girl. The author (Peg) tells just how she fought the long hard disease

I liked how this book was a true story. Since polio is such a hard disease to get over you become to respect Peg (the author) for what she went through. The writer truly knows how to write. With every ending of a chapter she would leave unanswered questions that you would only be able to answer if you went to the next chapter. Peg would end chapters like ' I fell asleep when I woke up, I was paralyzed." Her writing style is very easy to follow, and her vocabulary is easy to understand. She explains things so well, that you can simply build a picture in your mind things like "I tried again. Nothing happened. I tried with my left arm. Nothing. I tried to bend my knees so I could roll on my side, but my legs were two logs"... This book was very thought out when writing it.

I would recommend this book to all people who like true stories. Unlike nonfiction books this story is how life truly is one day you can fell fine, and the next you're diagnosed with three types of polio. I really think this is a great book. It's well thought out, and well written. Peg wrote in a matter that is easy to read and follow. I don't like reading, but this was the first book I couldn't put down!

This is the best book ever! It's about the author, Peg Kehart, telling about her diagnosis of polio. It's really sad but extremely exciting! I didn't want to put it down. I reccomend that you read "Small Steps" if you want to read the best book in the universe!