On Being Sarah

January 1, 1993
Gr 5-8- -Sarah, 12, is confined to a wheelchair, with limited movement and no speech, the result of cerebral palsy. Her story involves her struggle and growth in regard to self-image; her relationships with family, peers, and neighbors; her adjustment at school; and the beginnings of a romance. Her thoughts are set in italics, reminding readers that she is nonverbal. Charles Bliss's system of pictoral/symbol communication is worked in throughout the story, as Sarah uses this system. Helfman supplies keen realism and compassionate descriptions of the girl's response to physical and emotional frustration, and her heroine is both introspective and outwardly determined. She thinks and feels with complexity. The story's closure is a bit abrupt, but overall, the book is very successful.- Judith Lipshutz, Norristown Public Library, PA

December 15, 1992
Gr. 7-9. Sarah is 12 years old. She has cerebral palsy, is confined to a wheelchair, and communicates through Blissymbols, a tool for those unable to vocalize. Based on the life of a real person, Helfman's novel explores the tremendous difficulties and small triumphs of Sarah's everyday life--getting to school on her own, adjusting to being mainstreamed, meeting her first "friend who happens to be boy." Faithful to Sarah's point of view, the book focuses on her physical challenges and shows that when those around her are helpful and sensitive, her difficulties need not be restrictive. Sarah and her family and friends are neither well-rounded nor clearly delineated characters. They exist to further the book's message, which points out clearly and often that there is a complex human soul inside Sarah's body. An afterword explains the origin of Blissymbols. ((Reviewed Dec. 15, 1992))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1992, American Library Association.)