Alma Fullerton

A teenage boy recounts, in a free verse journal, his attempts to come to terms with the realities of his mother's near-death coma.

"Fifth-grader Claire can do a perfect triple handspring. She can do a giant pirouette on the uneven bars. What she can't do is reading. With a lot of effort, she hides her secret until an alert vice principle suggests she get evaluated for a learning disability. Now Claire has to convince her mother--who's afraid her daughter will be labeled 'stupid'--to let her get tested. And that turns out to be even harder than reading"--

Early morning in Uganda see a small boy struggle with jerry cans filled with the day's supply of water. At the villiage square he spies an aid truck fill with something amazing, what can a such a small barefoot boy to earn the treasure inside that truck?