Author: Patrick J. Bird
Stars: 3
Review by: Jelsey
Destination: NY
A four-year-old Boy contracts polio in 1940 and is sent to a Reconstruction Home, where he spends the next year and a half. During that time (this is before Sister Kenny and her revolutionary "hot packs" treatment) young Paddy is immobilized for a while when his legs are encased in plaster casts. Once they are removed, he undergoes therapy for his weakened legs. Loneliness and sorrow for his far-away family add to Paddy's difficulties, but many at the facility are kindhearted and ease his ills. Life gets interesting for Paddy when a somewhat older street-wise boy with spina bifida becomes his roommate. Their exploits are hilarious. This fictionalized autobiography is fast-moving and accurate in its portrayal of the polio treatment at the time. The facility where Paddy stayed is now the Helen Hayes Hospital, renowned during the polio epidemics in the mid-20th-century and today as an outstanding rehab hospital. This book would be of interest to younger readers as well as adults.
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