Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

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.
• 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.
• 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: . 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[]