Children’s Book from 1970s or before — Heroine Contracts Polio

[Anne]

I don’t think this is “Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio” by Peg Kehret because this was a novel, not a memoir, with a third person point of view.

The one thing I remember was that early on, after the heroine is sent to the hospital, people (medical professionals?) have to go to her bedroom and get rid of all her personal things in case they were contaminated. Not just her sheets and blankets but also her dolls and books.

I’m pretty sure this was a paperback because I think I found it on the paperback spinner rack in the local library. I probably checked it out around 1976 or later, after the “Eleanor and Franklin” miniseries on TV, because that made me more aware of polio.

I’ve looked at some of the books about children with polio on Goodreads, but many are newer books, and the others don’t look familiar.

Thanks!

Anne

[Barbara]

Does she draw and paint horses?

[Rainbowheart]

Tall and Proud?

Triumph Clear?

The Trembling Years?

[Barbara]

I was thinking it sounded a lot like Tall and Proud, by Vian Smith.

[Kris]

There are longer reviews of Tall and Proud by Vian Smith on Amazon -- https://www.amazon.com/Tall-Proud-Via...

From Kirkus Reviews: "Like Martin Rides the Moor (1965, p. 574, J-188), this is the story of a youngster (this time a girl) encouraged to overcome a handicap (this time polio) by the acquisition of a horse. Gail is stricken suddenly while she is enacting heroic exploits in the moorland stream; in the hospital, she writes and draws her imaginings, always with a horse, tall and proud, at their hub. Home again, she fails to progress; over-protected by her mother, she is in danger of becoming a permanent invalid. A sharp warning from the doctor sends Gail's father searching for a horse to give her an incentive to walk. Sam-- Samalaya, an injured racehorse -- is the answer: he's cheap enough for Mr. Fleming, fine enough for Gail. Girl and horse recover together, and cap their cure by helping to catch an escaped prisoner. The course of Gail's illness, from blinding pain to resentment to renewed effort, is seen through her own troubled consciousness, sometimes clearly, sometimes overlaid by suspicion and jealousy; her mother's concern struggles with a sense of estrangement from her daughter; her father's worry is for Gail and for his own inadequacy. Horse and handicap hold the reader's interest and the underlying conflicts raise it above the routine."