Katy is a girl who just can’t help getting in trouble. She even gets in trouble when she’s doing nice things like making everyone a surprise breakfast. She does try hard but sometimes she can be rather unlucky on her daredevil expeditions. One day however her luck runs out altogether. Katy creeps out of the house without permission to meet her friend, Rian. She hopes that she won’t be missed. Unfortunately she is. Her stepmother, Izzie is angry. This time however Izzie doesn’t take Katy’s voyage lightly and Katy is banished from the family trip to the pool. Infuriated Katie decides to have her own fun. When the family leave Katie leaps into her neighbour’s garden and tries to make her own swing… Moments later she finds herself in the children’s ward at the hospital with every inch of her body hurting. Katy has been confined to a wheelchair and will never walk again. When she leaves the hospital with paralysed legs everyday tasks like taking a shower turn into tiring burdens. When Katy feels depressed Izzie has an idea and calls Helen who is a successful but disabled person, Helen motivates Katy and helps her to believe in herself. Can Katy still be Katy if she can’t walk?
Jacqueline Wilson got the idea of this book from What Katy Did, which is a classic. It’s about a girl who also becomes handicapped and is eventually cured. Jacqueline Wilson thought this unfair and so decided to write a story about what really happens to disabled children.
This book is slightly emotional but still manages to be heart-warming and entertaining. Everything in the book is revealed from Katy’s point of view which helps you to look at situations from a different angle. You can really understand why Katy decided to throw her enemy’s clothes in the swimming pool and why she wanted to slip out of the house unnoticed. Even though normally, you would have just thought of Katy as a naughty, disobeying child with a hot temper and no manners.
I think for this book a suitable age limit would be 9 and above. Have you read it yet??
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