"Fifth-grader Chlaire can do a perfect triple handspring. She can do a giant pirouette on the uneven bars. What she can't do is reading. With a lot of effort, she hides her secret until an alert vice principle suggests she get evaluated for a learning disability. Now Claire has to convince her mother--who's afraid her daughter will be labeled "stupid"--to let her get tested. And that turns out to be even harder than reading"--

Able to read and write at only a second grade level, sixth-grader Sam Mott considers himself dumb until he is prompted to cooperate with those who think something can be done about his problem.

"What does the term "reading" mean to you? This alternative history of reading tells the stories of atypical readers and the impact had on their lives by neurological conditions affecting their ability to make sense of the printed word: from dyslexia, hyperlexia, and alexia to synesthesia, hallucinations, and dementia. The book's focus on neurodiversity aims to transform our understanding of the very concept of reading. Drawing on personal testimonies...

Provides information about dyslexia, looks at what scientific breakthroughs have revealed about the reading disorder, and presents a step-by-step program parents can follow to help their dyslexic children, or that older students and adults can use to develop reading skills.

"Maple Mehta-Cohen has been keeping a secret: she can't read all that well. She has an impressive vocabulary and loves dictating stories into her recorder--especially the adventures of a daring sleuth who's half Indian and half Jewish like Maple herself--but words on the page just don't seem to make sense to her. Despite all Maple's clever tricks to hide her troubles with reading, her teacher is on to her, and now Maple has to repeat fifth grade....

Fertig tells the inspiring, heartbreaking stories of three young people as they struggle to learn to read before it is too late. At the same time, the author tells a story of great change in schools as teachers and parents question the meaning of education as never before.