I believe now she has virtually no sight. At that time, she was able to read the lyrics projected onto a screen if she stood right at the screen.

I count it as a privilege and a treasured memory that I attended a music workshop that she also attended, back in the 1970s. Then I would have to walk back and forth, following the words not only with my eyes but with my entire body.” “If I wanted to read what was written on the board,” she recalled in Little by Little, “I would have to stand up so that my face was only inches away from the writing. As a result, she struggled with many everyday tasks. By fourth grade, however, she transferred into a regular class and no longer received specialized treatment-large-print books, for example, or oversized lettering on the chalkboard. There, she first attended a class for students with vision problems. Quoting the biography on her website, By 1939, Little’s family had moved to Toronto, Canada. Jean has been legally blind nearly all her life, although for many years she did have some vision. They may show the difficulties a child faces, but they also show the joys of everyday life, and give hope - not hope of healing, but hope of having the life of a regular kid who just happens to have a challenge of some sort. Her books are not depressing, however, despite their realism. It was and is important to her that these depictions be realistic, not the sort of disability that is found in books like Heidi, where the character is suddenly and miraculously healed. Her books often deal with tough subjects, and often have characters with disabilities - when she began writing, she wanted to not only give children with disabilities a voice, but also wanted them to be able to find themselves in books. The family returned to Canada when she was quite young. She was born in Taiwan of Canadian parents in 1932, which makes her 81 - a fact which boggles my mind just a little. Jean Little is one of my favorite authors, a widely acclaimed author of both picture books and middle grade novels. Doing the research for this post was a joy.

Stars Come Out Within by Jean Little