Children\'s Literature in Esme Raji

Children's Literature

In Esme Raji Codell's children's book entitled Sahara Special she tells the story of Sahara, a special education student, whose world unfolds when her mother insists she be taken out of the school's special education courses. In the story, Sahara is facing the daunting task of just first entering the regular education classroom in the fifth grade. Sahara takes a negative view of the prospect and thus, at first, refuses to even try to succeed.

This attitude changes with the entry of Miss Pointy, the new fifth grade teacher. The book describes Miss Pointy as being slightly eccentric, with "eggplant colored lipstick" and a repertoire of such "strange subjects as 'Puzzling' and 'Time Travel'.

The story focuses on how this "teacher like no other" allows Sahara to find the courage she needs to overcome her fears and thus be able to prove what her actual abilities are. Whereas at first Sahara only secretly likes to read and right, through Miss Pointy Sahara is once again able to embrace her true love for learning.

The reason Sahara is in special education in the first place is a combination of factors stemming from both her home life and school history. As a young girl, Sahara's father abandoned her and ever since then Sahara has been struggling to come to terms with this. To deal with this feeling of this being her fault, Saraha has chosen to "just play dumb" and not care about school. Thus, she was viewed in school as needing special education, which proved to be a self-fulfilling prophecy in this case. Although at first Sahara did not need special education, by being placed in it she was removed from exploring her true gifts for reading and learning. Even when placed in the regular classroom, Sahara continued to view herself as "dumb" and thus able to get by.