Over the years, CCRW has had to undo many misconceptions about disability and individual differences. CCRW also identified a need for children's storybooks that represent persons with disabilities. This book is the result of CCRW's attempt to address these needs and is a tool that can be used to give children a positive message about disabilities while entertaining young readers with rhyme, rhythm, and humour.
Wendy Blair, the character in this book, represents each of us. Wendy is angelic and naughty and has strengths and weaknesses, talents and capabilities, and emotions and feelings. These attributes make up the very core of each of us, and it is our core that defines us. We are not defined by a single attribute such as a disability. This is important to remember when we meet someone and decide not to get to know him or her because we're not comfortable with a particular attribute of that person. Instead, we should adjust our focus and our attitude to see, appreciate, and celebrate all the attributes that make each of us so wonderfully unique.
Carolyn MacDiarmid
The Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work
2. Wendy and her classmates play basketball , page 30
3a) "At lunchtime, she would shoot her peas/ Between the supervisor's knees" Wendy torments the lunchroom supervisor, page 10
3b) Wendy, in her wheelchair, continues to torment the lunchroom supervisor, page 28
4. Wendy scuplts in plasticine, page 27 (detail)
All images except for 1, coloured pencil on paper
Sarah Ennals 2001
All photographs by Andrew Specht, 2002
Contact Carolyn MacDiarmid
