The book “Jamie: A Literacy Story,” written by Diane Parker, is about a woman named Ms. Parker who had the chance to teach Jamie throughout her kindergarten and second grade years. Jamie had spinal muscular atrophy.
As Jamie’s teacher, Parker created a curriculum that involved a lot of reading for the students as well as for their parents. She had assignments called parent-child journals, in which the parents would write down details that the child wanted the teacher to know.
In the midst of creating the curriculum, Parker was also creating a way for Jamie to feel comfortable in the school, which was no problem, because she was outgoing and the children adjusted and gravitated towards her. With the chemistry she shared with the other kids, they became known as a school family.
Parker’s own children and husband would come to the classroom and teach the children things and allow the students to join them in the active teaching and activities they did. Jamie became very close with the Parker family and grew to love them; her family also became attached.
As Jamie was entering third grade, her illness became worse, which caused her to be hospitalized for several months. Eventually, Jamie passed away, due to her illness.
I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to teachers and students interested in situations of this nature. As a bibliotherapy tool, it helps young children to know that even though some children may be different, we are all the same in many other ways.
For example, Jamie couldn’t walk but she was very talkative, very helpful and very loving to her peers. She could also read extremely well in the first grade. She was very bright and “normal,” in spite of the fact she couldn’t walk.