Week 13

This week I read for about two hours from the book, The Man Who Loved Clowns by June Rae Wood. The book was so good! I read it in one sitting because I could not put it down. It was about a girl named Delrita and her Uncle, Punky. Punky has Down syndrome so Delrita is always trying to hide him from the world. She loves her uncle so much, but she is also ashamed of him. Together they go through a lot of life changing events. Delritas parents, which are punky's sister and brother-in-law, die instantly in a car accident so they have to live with Punky's brother and his wife. This is a big change for them and they have trouble adjusting to it. In the end Punky also dies just months after Delrita's parents died. Delrita was very upset, but learned a lot after his death. At the burial site a parade of people came to grieve over Punky. They showed Delrita that there are people who saw Punky as more than a man to make fun of. She realizes that Punky opened his wings and made a life for himself and now she needed to do the same thing. There were parts of the book that made me want to quit reading, but I never did. When Delrita's parents died I cried and thought to myself that this book is depressing and that I didn't want to read anymore, but I could help but read on. Then, at the end of the book when Punky died, I felt like that was the end of the book. the story went on though, so I too kept reading. This is a book that I am going to buy. I think it would be a good one to add to my class library even though not all the students in the age group I want to teach will be able to read it. I think it shows that there is more to a person than how they look on the outside.