I CAN JUMP PUDDLES

by Alan Marshall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 28, 1956

A polio victim from Australia tells the story of his childhood and, making no bid for sympathy, provides a testament to a courage that never admitted he was crippled. With little knowledge of the disease in the early 1900's, he was treated most primitively, first by his mother and later at the hospital, and with one ""bad"" leg he found his way around on crutches and then a wheel chair. From easy, casual friendships with older men in the hospital, he returned home to a father who preferred his ambitious efforts in fighting, climbing, hunting, etc., and the chance of Alan's breaking his neck, to the boy's breaking his heart if he did not try everything. Not thinking of himself as helpless Alan taught himself to swim, widened his horizons by his talks with the swagmen, secretly learned to ride and found that horses were exciting ""other legs"" and that he could perhaps fulfill his father's dream of a son on horseback. At school he held his own, by his means of fighting and the acceptance of loyal friends who paid no attention to his condition. And, with the winning of a scholarship, there came the chance of becoming an accountant. Hence the move to Melbourne wrote an end to his days in the bush. A lovingly remembered picture of Australian country life, and a striking account of a child's adjustment to physical disability.

Pub Date: Jan. 28, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: World

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1956

Categories: NONFICTION