Book Reflection: One Child By Torey Hayden

Saicy Lytle
AGED 2300
Frost, Gilliam, Ruiz
Book Reflection
The book we read in this class was “One Child” by Torey Hayden. I had many thoughts and felt many emotions while reading this book. Part of me was frustrated and angry with the was Sheila behaved. She lite another child on fire, what kind of person does that? Other situations, where she stabbed Torey with a pencil, I thought how does someone begin to think that is okay? Yet, another part of me felt incredibly sorry for Sheila. She never asked to live that life, she was simply playing the cards she was dealt.

Reading this book made me think back to my time in elementary school. When I was in fifth grade, we would always leave lunch as the Kindergarten students were starting their lunch period. My teacher made us walk a roundabout way to leave the cafeteria one day, and we walked right past the little table of kindergarten students. As I walked by this one girl, Emily, she tried to stab me with her fork for no apparent reason. I had never spoken to Emily. I had never even really seen other anther than just passing her in the halls, yet she tried to stab me. As I got older, I realized that Emily had many mental health problems. Her home life was not a good one. She really did not have anyone to take care of her when she was not at school.

Another thought that came to my mind was, how I would handle it if my child began to act like Sheila did?

Would I run away like her mom did? Would I not treat her so well, like her dad did? Of course not. When special needs children are born, how do their families handle it? Some parents, in my opinion, do a great job. They treat their child like nothing was wrong—how it should be. However, on the flip side, there are parents who love their children less because they were born with a

disability.

My next thought was in the classroom setting, how would I handle having a child like Sheila in my class. Would I still want to help her after she tried to stab me? Would I be okay with her being around my other students knowing that she had burned another child? I would like to think that I would give her every ounce of patience I had in me. I hope I would not give up on her, and do everything I could think of to help her.

Ultimately, I do not know how I would handle any of these situations until actually being in them. I can hope I would do the right thing, but I really do not know how I would handle it. In the end, I am glad things ended up the way they did for Sheila. I hope that any child in a similar situation, or facing any kind of issues would have a positive outcome. I would like to see everyone overcome the struggles they face, but I also know that is an unrealistic expectation.

As far as the book club discussion went, I felt like many people felt hatred towards Sheilas mother. I think the book was kind of misleading as to what really happened in the car that day. It might have been the mother’s fault, but a few other things are possible as well. My discussion with the people around me did not change the way I feel about the book or about Sheila. For the most part, we all felt the same way towards Sheila and Torey.

This was an emotional book to say the least. I definitely was not expecting what I got from it. I think anyone going into a teaching position, regardless of what grade or subject, should read this book. It contains situations one might never think they could be put in, but anything is possible. Even through the tears I enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to anyone going into a teaching profession.