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Dear Canada: to Stand on My Own by Barbara Haworth-Attard

Dear Canada: to Stand on My Own

The Polio Epidemic Diary of Noreen Robertson, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, 1937

Barbara Haworth-Attard

Scholastic Canada Ltd · Print & ebook · October 1, 2010

The dark threat of polio becomes a reality for a young Prairie girl.

Illness & InjuryPost-Confederation Canadabook club
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Who it’s for
A young girl's diary brings polio, hardship, and the long work of recovery into close view.
Themes
Polio and recovery, Life during the Great Depression, Adjusting to disability
Genres
Post-Confederation Canada, Illness & Injury

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About this book

The dark threat of polio becomes a reality for a young Prairie girl. In the summer of 1937, life on the Prairies is not easy. The Great Depression has brought great hardship, and young Noreen's family must scrimp to make ends meet. In a horrible twist of fate, Noreen, like hundreds of other young Canadians, contracts polio and is placed in an isolation ward, unable to move her legs.

Continue reading

After a few weeks she gains partial recovery, but her family makes the painful decision to send her to a hospital far away for further treatment. To Stand On My Own is Noreen's diary account of her journey through recovery: her treatment; life in the ward; the other patients, some of them far worse off than her; adjustment to life in a wheelchair and on crutches; and ultimately, the emotional and physical hurdles she must face when she returns home. In this moving addition to the Dear Canada series, award-winning author Barbara Haworth-Attard recreates a desolate time in Canadian history, and one girl's brave fight against a deadly disease.

Recovery in Her Words

A young girl's diary brings polio, hardship, and the long work of recovery into close view.

Come here for

  • A 1937 Prairie childhood shaped by the Depression and polio
  • A personal perspective on hospital life and returning home

Expect

  • Diary entries tracing treatment and adjustment to a wheelchair and crutches
  • Emotional and physical hurdles, without an easy recovery

Where it sits

Illness & Injury97%
Post-Confederation Canada62%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Post-Confederation Canada
Authors
Barbara Haworth-Attard
Publisher
Scholastic Canada Ltd
Published
October 1, 2010
Format
Print & ebook
Theme
Polio and recovery · Life during the Great Depression · Adjusting to disability
Reading lane
Post-Confederation Canada