Let the words sprout like seedlings, then relax and watch as your wild diary grows. Throw wildflower seeds all over each page, she advises. She says it so calmly that I promise I will try. Despite what the doctor says, Fefa’s mother tells her things that her heart longed for: Think of this little book as a garden, Mama suggests. The book is about Margarita’s own grandmother Fefa (Josefa de la Caridad Uría Peña) as she struggled with words that somersault or even fly off the page – not keeping still. The year was in the early 1900s (possibly around 1910-1912) – and the term dyslexia was not coined yet. Imagine receiving such a pronouncement, a curse really is the word for it, from a medical doctor. A “wild wild” blank notebook I bought while I was in Prague. Fefa will never be able to read, or write, or be happy in school. Word blindness, he repeats – some children can see everything except words. I have also read a few children’s books that deal with this problem – from the crazy/wacky ( Roald Dahl’s Vicar of Nibbleswicke) to the inspiring ( Patricia Polacco’s Junkyard Wonders), but this is the first time that it has been perceived from such a poetic vantage and once again, I am smitten.

As a clinician, I am familiar with dyslexia and the struggles that children (and their families) face with this reading difficulty. Word Blindness and Words that won’t Keep Still. I received this beautiful book from Margarita’s Publisher December of last year and I deliberately postponed writing my review until now that we are celebrating women’s voices and girl power for our current bimonthly theme. Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC).Literary Voyage Around The World Reading Challenge 2018.#WomenReadWomen2019 (A Year Of Women Reading Women) Reading Progress.#ReadIntl2020 (Year Of International Literature) Reading Progress.#DecolonizeBookshelves2022 Reading Progress.#DecolonizeReading2023 Reading Progress.

The wild book by margarita engle