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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSPeg Kehret tells the true story of the year she got polio. In 1949, Peg Schulze is a twelve-year-old seventh-grader in Austin, Minnesota. On Homecoming day, a muscle in her leg twitches during chorus, and then her legs give out in the hall. The next day she learns she has polio. She walks into a hospital a hundred miles from home, falls asleep, and wakes up paralyzed from the neck down. Soon she can barely breathe or swallow, and she is moved by ambulance to University Hospital, which has respirators. In the weeks that follow she meets a young doctor who paints her toenails, a boy in an iron lung who loves the same radio show she does, and a harsh therapist whose painful stretching sessions Peg calls "Torture Time." Later she returns to the first hospital, a rehabilitation center called the Sheltering Arms, and shares a room with four girls whose lives are very different from hers. Her family's Sunday visits, her sense of humor, and a promise to walk for her favorite doctor someday keep her going.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a girl secretly vow to tell the world about a nurse who refuses to turn her?
✓ Answer
Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio by Peg Kehret
In the middle of the night at University Hospital, a nurse refuses to turn Peg over and tells her not to call unless she can't breathe. Lying there aching, Peg privately promises herself that she will fight her illness, walk out of the hospital someday, and tell the whole world about the mean nurse.
- First half
In what book does a girl give a boy in an iron lung her radio, fibbing that she owns another?
✓ Answer
Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio by Peg Kehret
Before she leaves University Hospital, Peg tells Tommy he can keep the radio they listened to together and says her parents can bring her radio from home. That isn't true, since she doesn't have a radio of her own, but in all their time together no one has visited Tommy, whose family lives hundreds of miles away, and she decides he needs it more than she does.
- First half
In what book does a hot bath leave a girl lobster-red, with fingers wrinkled like raisins?
✓ Answer
Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio by Peg Kehret
After working with Peg for a week, Miss Ballard lets her try a hot bath instead of hot packs, and nurses Willie and Terry help her into the tub. Peg grins when Miss Ballard offers a bath each day instead, and the baths replace her hot packs for good.
- Second half
In what book does a girl dare her father to try the accordion he calls a breeze?
✓ Answer
Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio by Peg Kehret
Peg hates the accordion Miss Ballard chose to strengthen her arms, but Dad tells her she will master it in no time. When she asks why he doesn't play it himself, he borrows it from the O.T. room and produces nothing but squawks and squeaks while the girls boo.
- Second half
In what book does a girl secretly recommend her roommate for a Christmas pageant solo and never let on?
✓ Answer
Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio by Peg Kehret
When Miss Ballard wants music for the pageant, Peg praises Alice's clear, bell-like voice like an enthusiastic agent. Alice guesses a nurse must have told on her, and Peg never says otherwise, because what matters is that Alice gets to be part of the show.
- Near the end
In what book does a mother give away her daughter's toys and tell everyone it was the girl's idea?
✓ Answer
Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio by Peg Kehret
Mother notices that the little kids' ward at the Sheltering Arms has too few toys, and she talks Peg into giving away her table and chairs, all but her favorite dolls, many of her books, and even her doll buggy. Peg never enjoys seeing other children use her things, but Mother, glowing with pride, gives her unselfish daughter all the credit.
