Sahara Special

by Esmé Raji Codell

Book Overview

Sahara Jones is going into fifth grade-again. Although she won't be "Sahara Special" anymore (special needs, that is), she doesn't expect this year to be any better than last year. Fifth grade is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0439653703
• ISBN13: 9780439653701
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Scholastic Book Services
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Testament to any student who is not quite fitting in

Wow! I can't even remember why I bought this book in the first place, but I think I had something like a good vibe that proved to be very much correct. This is about a girl going through a rather awkward time. Though she is brilliant, her behavior and ability in school put her into a resource program that earns an sadly unfortunate nickname. It's about her world and her relationship with the people around her. As a teacher, I am reminded of how students think and that they are still children that have thoughts, feelings, and ideas. The writing is sassy and brilliant, and the story is subtle and touching. Simply amazing.

More Than Special

I hardly ever show any emotion after reading a book, but this one made me cry every time I read it! (That's 3.) I have been searching for my favourite book but nothing could EVER be better than this one. Sahara is a girl who lives with her mother in the city, and when her parents split up it affects her education, and she becomes special needs. When she is put back in the classroom in repeat 5th grade, she is so pleased at the chance but struggles over making new friends, fitting in with the children, always wondering about one special boy who is different in so many ways and trying so hard to not think about the letters she wrote to her father, now locked away in the filing cabinet as proof that she can write. She wants her book to be in the library, but if she wants to do anything, she needs to get the notes back. Will she manage to do it? It's so sentimental and told from so many different viewpoints, you can't help but feel free once you've read it. One particular paragraph that was for me very emotional was: She's nice, she smiles at me in the street, she gave me a butterscotch candy out of her handbag with the little gold clasp. When she gave it to me, I looked at her hands, wrinkled with more lines than a road map, speckled with lakes of brown. What's it like to be old, I wonder, to have skin with lines for every mile you've walked, every trip around the sun? When I watch TV, I never want to be old, they laugh at oldness on TV. But in the dark, I hold my hands up straight above me in the air like two stars and I wish for lines that prove I have been here. I wonder about Mrs. Rosen at the kitchen table, looking at the lines in her hands in the middle of the night. Who is she waiting for? And another, from the girl who never raises her hand in class: True things don't always happen in the world, where you can see and touch them. True things also happen in the imagination. I raised my hand today in both places. Another, in an essay about her name: When my father left, we changed our name back to Jones. You can change your first name too, my mother said. We don't need nothing that man gave us. Another thing about it is how Sahara is like me and myself. That affects the way I read it, but as she said at the end of the essay, choosing makes all the difference.

A book that's changed my life forever!

Sahara Special, opens eyes!!! The book is about a young 12 year old girl, who has troubles in school. People say she is special to be mean, just because she has issues, but she is really a remarkable girl who has a dream! She wants to become a writer more than anything. Sahara lives in a bad part of Chicago, where kids don't even know who their own father is. Unfortunatly Sahara is one of those kids. Her daddy walked out on the family, and it's having a huge problem with her, she doesn't know why he walked out on her mom, and her, and hinks it's her fault. Since Sahara had issues with her dad leaving, she started writing notes and thoughts to her dad, and she'd shove them in her desk. One day while the school counsler was in the room all the notes fell out of her desk, and on to the floor. the Counsler saw the notes and actually read them, and she decided Sahara needed counseling, so they put her in this special program for challenged kids. Sahara didn't like it one bit, so she got out of it, but got held back in school. The following year in school she got a new teacher named Miss. Pointy, who was wonderful and helped Sahara realize that Sahara was special, but in a good way! This book opened my eyes to what some kids go through!! I'm glad I read it, and it has a very possitive message! The author is wonderful! I hope U read it too!!

Something Special

Esme Raji Codell has done the impossible-- she has written a book that transported me back in time to my own school girl days, and made me realize how miraculous life can be. Sahara Special is an insightful, funny and moving tale about a troubled, but talented young girl. Codell has an incredible ear for kids' voices that makes her first person narrator feel like a best friend. I recommend this book to kids dealing with divorce, life changes, and of course, the desire to write!

A Reader from Chicago

Like Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Sahara learns to flower in the desert of city life and the absence of her father. Sahara's character is in the tradition of antiheroines or, rather, heroic young "misfits" before her, such as Mick Kelly who privately and protectively creates her music in The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. Who will hear--or want to?From her teacher Miss Pointy (who, despite her name, helps smooth the sharp edges of school life), Sahara learns to listen to her own mind and heart and, most touchingly, to take comfort from it.Younger readers who live in crowded inner city neighborhoods will recognize and appreciate Esme Codell's descriptions of city and classroom life and relationships with family, friends, and teachers. Once read, older readers will want to read this book to younger ones so they can hear Sahara's special voice again.