Rhona grows up with her collected labels of being lazy and immature. She spends her unhappy days, re-doing work, dreading reading sessions, dreaming of escaping it all. She is lost, she does not understand why her efforts results in poor marks, cementing her place in the retard class. She falls further behind in Primary School with a bully of a teacher and her self-esteem is rock bottom. Rhona skilfully develops ingenious strategies and is forever adapting to accommodate the latest challenge. Survival is a daily task. A broken limb and a change of school provides relief. Rhona's Secondary School English teacher looks beyond the trees of the pre-existing labels and sees the complete view. She sees a bright child with dyslexia and gently shows Rhona a way out of the forest. Rhona still battles with trust and luck and needs all her resourcefulness and determination, but the path looks like it could lead out and so Rhona's life begins to have hope and a possible future.
“Rhona's book is a heartbreaking story of a child struggling with dyslexia in the `80s. But more than that, it's the story of a child, like most children in the `80s, who was almost never listened to or treated with respect by the adults in her life. This book will show you what it feels like to have dyslexia, and it will also show you what it feels like to have the help in exams which are now routinely given (reader, writer and extra time). Rhona's compelling story absorbed me from start to finish, and really showed me what Dyslexia was, and is, like for her.”?-Liz Sedley, Creator of Dyslexia GoldShow/Hide AudioEngine Data
