59 pages • 1 hour read
Peg KehretSmall Steps: The Year I Got Polio
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Middle Grade | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “Happy Thirteenth Birthday”
On the first Sunday of November, Peg’s father reveals that they will throw a party for her 13th birthday. Though Peg usually keeps track of the countdown every year, this year she has lost track of time and has forgotten all about her birthday. Peg wonders what her 13th year will bring her—a wheelchair, walking sticks and leg braces, or the gift of learning to walk again. Peg begins to think of her home, which is much more than walls and furniture. “Home,” to Peg means the people and experiences she is most fond of: her grandpa sitting next to her at dinner, her mother singing in the kitchen, the smell of clean sheets, and her father coming home from work with bubble gum. To Peg, “home [means] feeling safe and cherished” (96). At Peg’s birthday party with her family, the nurses, and her roommates, her only wish is to someday be able to walk again. The next Sunday, Peg’s parents return with a recording of all the girls enjoying the party. The girls watch it gleefully, and when it’s over, they rewind and play it again. In bed later that night, the girls talk about how fun it was to see themselves in a movie, which makes Peg reminisce about the dozens of other home movies she has “starred” in growing up. She becomes homesick and wonders if she’ll ever recover enough to go home.
Miss Ballard’s optimism eases Peg’s worries, and she praises Peg’s progress every day. Miss Ballard transitions Peg to hot baths instead of the hot packs. Peg loves the hot baths, for they relax and soothe her muscles even more than the hot packs did, without the initial burning sensation. Her arms and legs feel weightless in the water, allowing her to move more freely. Occupational therapy is added to Peg’s daily schedule, and she begins to use crafts and projects to strengthen her damaged muscles. For example, to rebuild her foot and ankle strength, her occupational therapist, Jeanette, instructs her to pick up marbles with her toes and transfer them to the opposite foot.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Dancing the Hula, Popping a Wheelie”
As Thanksgiving approaches, Miss Ballard wants Peg to stand by herself. Peg’s physical therapy sessions have helped build strength in her arms, legs, and back. Despite her progress, Peg worries, remembering her collapse during her last attempt at University Hospital. The next morning, Miss Ballard helps Peg into a standing position and lets go; Peg remains standing for a full minute. Miss Ballard insists that Peg practice standing every day and learn to get in and out of a wheelchair by herself. As the days pass, Peg’s standing times increase along with her confidence. Peg soon gets measured for a pair of walking sticks. She’s elated because if she can learn to walk with sticks, she won’t need the wheelchair anymore. Peg is impatient for her sticks to arrive and asks Miss Ballard why she can’t borrow Dorothy’s. Miss Ballard explains that the height must be exact. If they’re too short, they can cause back problems, but if they’re too long, Peg’s arm strength can’t be properly used to balance. Peg learns to get in and out of her wheelchair by herself in the meantime, which makes her feel independent for the first time since getting polio. She can now go anywhere she wants. Peg soon learns to pop a wheelie in her wheelchair, which she joyfully continues to do despite many warnings from the staff.
After dinner one Wednesday, Nurse Willie comes to notify Peg of a male visitor. Peg finds Dr. Bevis waiting for her; he tells her that Tommy is still in the iron lung and reminds her that she needs to come back to University Hospital and walk for him someday. She assures him that she will, and this time they both realize that it is “more than wishful thinking. [She] just might make it” (112).
Chapter 12 Summary: “A Disappointing Trip”
One night, Peg and her roommates talk about the beginnings of their polio journeys. Dorothy was sick for three days before her parents could get her to a doctor; at that point, she already had paralysis and was struggling to breathe, so she immediately went into an iron lung. Renée and Shirley have similar stories. Alice mentions that it didn’t matter when she was brought to the hospital, because the Kenny treatments weren’t in use at that point. She never got hot packs or physical therapy. Peg wonders if Alice’s chances might have been better with the treatment; she also wonders what her own condition would be like without the treatments. The girls go on to discuss the things they miss about their old lives. Shirley misses her grandma singing her to sleep. Alice jokes that she’ll sing her to sleep and starts singing. She has a pretty voice, and all the girls join in. From this point on, they start singing in the dark every night.
In December, Miss Ballard tells Peg that her parents have requested permission to bring her home for an overnight visit. Although it’s not usually done, Peg’s progress is promising, so Miss Ballard gives Peg permission to go. Miss Ballard warns her that it will be hard to get around at home, but Peg doesn’t care. The two-hour ride home from the Sheltering Arms is more difficult than she expected. Seat belts were not yet used in cars to keep passengers upright, so up until this point Peg has never realized “how much [she] depended on [her] leg and back muscles to keep [her] balance in the car” (119). Peg doesn’t tell her parents of this issue because she wants to come home for good.
When they get home, she’s nearly too tired to get into her wheelchair, and the two front steps of the house present another issue. Peg’s dad lifts her wheelchair up the steps, yet almost dumps her out as Peg barely has the strength to hold herself in. Though Peg is happy to see her grandpa, he looks so unhappy at the sight of her in a wheelchair that she suddenly feels like she needs to apologize. The issues keep piling on as the wheelchair makes most of the two-story house inaccessible. For so long, Peg has wanted to come home, but now that she’s finally here, the visit only proves how far she still has to go to endure daily life outside the Sheltering Arms. Peg feels like “a stranger” in her own home and finds herself missing her roommates, who understand her situation. The next day, Peg is relieved to return to the Sheltering Arms, as “[t]rying to get along in the normal world [is] too hard. [She] still need[s] more help than [her] well-meaning family [can] provide” (122).
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
Most children count down the days until their next birthday, and the same used to be true for Peg, but this year she loses track completely. This seemingly minor memory slip signifies a major shift in priorities as a result of The Impact of Adversity on Perspective. The theme’s representation continues when instead of wishing for something like a toy, Peg has “only one wish: I want to walk again” (98). Peg begins to see her home less as a building with walls and furniture, and more as a symbol of the people, the experiences, the memories that make up her life, as well as the feeling of being “safe and cherished” (96). This new viewpoint is a result of her growing maturity, shifting values, and the more sophisticated perspective she has gained by considering the varying experiences of her roommates.
The important role that Peg’s family plays in her recovery intensifies as they visit the Sheltering Arms every Sunday and attempt to make her roommates feel included. The true significance of this dynamic becomes clear in Chapter 9, when “a window of understanding open[s] in [Peg’s] mind, and the breeze of compassion [blows] in. From that moment on, [she is] glad to share [her] visiting family with [her] roommates” (88). This poetically rendered quote signifies the moment that Peg first opens herself up to the possibility of combining her two separate communities. Whereas she is initially frustrated at the prospect of sharing her family’s attentions with her roommates during their weekly visits, Peg now shares her family freely. These growing connections also serve to heighten the morale and general happiness of Peg’s roommates just as they strengthen Peg’s supportive community by bringing parts of her “old” life and “new” life together. The combination represents hope for Peg’s future and affirms the possibility that she can learn to adapt to her post-polio life without losing the vital, cherished parts of her pre-polio life.
Miss Ballard’s care and compassion continue to spur Peg’s motivation, trust, and recovery. The added trust when Miss Ballard switches hot packs for hot baths only incentivizes Peg further, making recovery more enjoyable and something she looks forward to rather than shrinks away from. With Miss Ballard’s help, Peg is finally able to stand on her own, and the small steps Peg takes in recovery—both figuratively and literally as she learns to walk with her braces—lead to large steps toward regaining her independence. Thus, the liveliness of Peg’s personality blossoms in this section as she gains confidence through recovery, and her small acts of rebellion remind readers of her youthful impetuousness. She entertains her more rebellious side by learning to pop wheelies in her wheelchair, indicating the growing level of comfort she has in her abilities and the optimistic outlook for her life ahead.
Still, highs do not come without lows in recovery, and many of Peg’s more negative emotions stem from her homesickness. It comes as a surprise to her that her homesickness no longer extends to just her family home, but all the homes she’s had since her diagnosis. Each location represents a different stage of her life, separate communities of equal importance, and each unique version of Peg as her experiences continue to mold her. In Chapter 11, Dr. Bevis visits and delivers news of Tommy, which reminds Peg of her time at University Hospital. In Chapter 12, every moment of Peg’s visit home is a struggle, which disappoints and exhausts her. The Sheltering Arms is made with recovering polio patients in mind, her roommates all understand her, and the nurses can accommodate to her particular needs. However, Peg’s house is not like the rehab center; her family is not equipped to deal with her current needs and she has a long way to go in recovery before she’s ready to move home. Peg knows she will never be the same person again; polio has permanently changed her and makes her feel like a stranger in her own home and to her own family. Peg therefore struggles with Emotional Turmoil Throughout Recovery when she realizes that she doesn’t fit into the “normal” world.
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