Elsie the Outsider (eBook)
172 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-7457-7 (ISBN)
Breck Campbell is a native of Boonville, MO. She was the first child to parents that had no idea what they were doing. They do not give instruction manuals. Breck was born with Septo-Optic Dysplasia and had absolutely no vision since birth. This disability created challenges and struggles for Breck however you would never know by the smile on her face. Breck never let her diagnosis hinder her spirit or her desire to succeed, it did however, often leave her as an outsider. Breck graduated high school, went to college, and received two degrees only to be told, more suggested, this job is not for someone like you. Breck told me one time after a job interview 'Dad, I could literally feel their faces drop when I walked in with my cane.' Discouraged Breck took the one outlet that she understood the best writing. She has always been a storyteller and could capture a moment better than most adults I encountered. Her mother and I suggested she tell her story. The story about the struggles with making friends and being bullied. Maybe by telling her story she could somehow heal. There is a lot of traumas in Elsie, trauma that Breck experienced firsthand, this opportunity allows Breck the opportunity to heal. While Breck is healing we hope that this book will help another person, adult or child, cope with bullying, isolation and generally just feeling left out.
The one thing ten-year-old Elsie wants more than anything is a friend who will accept her for who she is. But friends are tough to find when you are the only blind kid in your school. Elsie often wonders, "e;Do kids do not want to be my friend because I'm blind, or is there another reason?"e; When Amy and Krista, the most popular girls in class, ask Elsie to sit with them at lunch, she wonders: am I finally going to fit in?Elsie's hopes are crushed when she realizes that Amy and Krista's reasons for asking her to sit with them are not what she hoped. It seems like no one at school will ever look past her disability... but things change when she meets Tanner and Shaylyn. Tanner shows Elsie that just maybe, a devoted friend will look past her blindness and see her as a person. And when Elsie finds herself in danger, Shaylyn proves that real friends are there when you need them the most. Has Elsie found a way to belong? Or will she always feel like an outsider?'Elsie the Outsider' is the debut novel of author Breck Campbell, based on the author's own experience living with blindness and struggling to make friends. This middle-grade novel explores themes of friendship, belonging, and bullying, all while navigating the tumultuous life changes of adolescence. 'Elsie the Outsider' takes a deep, authentic look at the challenges of life with a disability, and the struggle to fit in with your peers. It inspires young readers to look past the surface of people and see who they truly are.
Chapter 4
Questions About Blindness
At the end of the day, Elsie got on the bus and sat in her usual seat right behind the driver. She had just scooted over to the window when she felt someone plop down in the seat beside her.
“Hi, I’m Shaylyn. You are Elsie, right? I am new here. My classmates pointed you out at recess and said that you were blind.”
Elsie wished that there was something memorable about her aside from being blind. She hated that when people pointed her out or introduced her, her blindness was always the first thing they said about her.
“Hi, Shaylyn. Yes, I am Elsie,” she said.
Elsie could feel the other girl shift in the seat as she took off her backpack. When she had placed it under her seat Shaylyn asked, “Is it true that you’re blind? You don’t look blind.”
Elsie had never understood what sighted people thought about blind people. “What do you think blind people look like?”
Shaylyn squirmed and rubbed her hands together. She was quiet for so long that Elsie wondered if she would ever answer, but finally she said, “You know . . . most blind people wear glasses, or don’t have any eyes. Sometimes their eyes look funny or are small. Your eyes look normal, and you’re not wearing glasses.”
Elsie was silent for a moment. She wondered where the idea that blind people must look blind came from. “There are some blind people who have really small eyes or wear glasses, but others don’t,” she told Shaylyn.
“Why are you blind?”
Elsie started picking at her nails and did not answer right away. She always found it hard to explain to kids her age why she was blind.
Shaylyn touched her arm. “I’m sorry. My mom is always telling me I should think before I speak. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
Elsie sighed. “You didn’t hurt my feelings, but I have a hard time explaining to other people why I’m blind. It is kind of weird. My eyes are fine. My optic nerve is the problem.”
“What’s an optic nerve?”
“Your optic nerve is a nerve connected to the brain and your eyes that tells your brain what you’re seeing. My optic nerve is too small.”
Shaylyn was silent for a minute. “So, since your optic nerve thing is too small, it can’t tell your brain what your eyes are seeing?”
“Yes. The way my dad explains it, he says that seeing is like three people working together. The eye, the optic nerve, and the brain are three people, but if one of them does not do their part, then the others cannot either. My optic nerve is too small to do its part, so my brain doesn’t know what my eyes are seeing.”
Shaylyn thought about this for a minute. “That makes sense. Do you like to feel people’s faces? You can feel my face if you want to,” she offered, and then took Elsie’s hand and put it on her face.
“I don’t like feeling people’s faces,” Elsie said. “I think it’s kind of yucky.”
Shaylyn dropped Elsie’s hand and scooted as far away from Elsie as she could in the tiny seat. “I’m not yucky. I wash my face every morning.”
Elsie realized that she had spoken before she thought it through. “I didn’t mean you are yucky. I just meant that it is kind of yucky to touch people’s faces because we all have a lot of germs on our hands. And it isn’t good to touch your own face, so touching someone else’s face must be even worse.”
Shaylyn turned back toward Elsie. “That makes sense. My mom always tells me not to touch my face. Can I tell you what I look like?”
“Sure,” Elsie agreed.
“I am just a bit taller than you. I have curly red hair and green eyes. I know you do not like touching faces, but would you like to feel my hair?”
Elsie loved playing with other people’s hair but was always too shy to ask if she could. “Sure,” she said again.
Shaylyn took her hand and put it on her hair. Elsie ran her fingers through the other girl’s hair and then put her hand back in her lap. She did not know anyone that had hair like Shaylyn’s.
“Wow, it’s very curly. I like it.”
Shaylyn sighed. “My sister likes to pat my head like a dog and call me ‘fluffy.’” She picked up a few strands of Elsie’s hair. “You have really pretty light brown hair. My sister has hair kind of like yours, except hers is thicker. I always tell her that her hair is like a horse’s tail.”
Elsie laughed at that thought. “Thank you.”
Shaylyn put down the strands of Elsie’s hair she had been playing with and bent to pick up her backpack. “We’re almost at my stop. Can I sit with you again sometime?”
“I won’t be on the bus tomorrow,” Elsie told her. “But you can on Wednesday.”
“Why won’t you be on the bus tomorrow?”
“I have to work with Julie. She’s a teacher for kids who are blind and visually impaired.”
“What does she teach you?” Shaylyn asked. Before Elsie could answer she said, “Am I asking too many questions? My mom says I ask too many questions.”
“I don’t mind you asking. Julie taught me how to read braille and use a cane when I was younger. Now we work on crossing streets and using computers.”
“Wow! You can use a computer?”
“Yes,” Elsie said. “Some computers can talk, and now we have computers that have braille displays. A braille display is kind of like a screen except it has braille, not print.”“
When the bus stopped, Shaylyn touched Elsie’s arm and asked, “See you Wednesday?”
“Sure.”
After Shaylyn left, Elsie thought about their conversation. She did ask a lot of questions, but not in a mean way. Elsie did not mind answering her questions and found that she kind of liked having someone to sit with.
*
When Elsie and her family sat down to dinner that night, Dad asked, “How was everyone’s day?”
Elsie took a bite of peas and said, “I accidentally went to school with my shirt on inside-out, and when Mrs. Perry told me I was wearing it wrong, I tried to say that it was one of those reversible sweaters.”
Elsie’s dad laughed, and then choked on the bite of food he was chewing.
“That’s what you get for laughing at our daughter,” Mom joked.
Dad continued to laugh and said, “Shirts like that aren’t reversible.”
“That’s what Mrs. Perry said. I was embarrassed because I didn’t know how to fix it, so I asked if I could start a new fashion trend.”
Her dad laughed even harder. “Honey, how did you not know that your daughter’s sweater was on inside-out?” he asked his wife.
Mom sighed. “I’m sorry, Elsie. I was so stressed this morning. I knew today would be a hard day at work and I was thinking about that instead of looking to make sure you were dressed right.”
Elsie knew that Mom worked at a counseling office. She had often heard her mom say that she did not like her boss, Marsha. Mom had talked about disagreements that Marsha, and her other boss, Pam, had had over the years. Elsie wondered if today was so stressful because they had another fight. She wished that they would get along so her mom’s job would be easier.
“Mom, what made today so stressful?”
Mom sighed. “Marsha just got back from vacation, and she had a lot of people that were trying to get an appointment. We also have a lot of new clients, and it can be hard scheduling them for their first appointment.”
“Why is it hard scheduling people for their first appointment?”
“A lot of them are nervous about talking to someone for the first time. Some of them get so nervous that they don’t show up, and that makes Marsha angry because that is time that she could have been with another client, and time she won’t be paid for.”
“What about Pam?”
“Pam is more understanding. She knows how hard it can be, trying to talk to someone for the first time.”
“You like Pam, don’t you?” Elsie asked as she chased a potato around her plate with her fork.
“Yes, I like Pam. If Marsha weren’t there, I would really like my job.”
Part of Elsie wished that Marsha would quit so her mom would like her job, but she was afraid that if Marsha left, Pam would as well, and she did not want Mom to not have a job.
Elsie heard the ice clink in Dad’s cup as he took a drink and said, “I guess Marsha’s vacation didn’t make her feel better?”
Elsie heard a crunch as Mom bit into her meat. “No. I think it made her feel worse because she knows how hard the holiday season is for many of her clients, and she feels like she abandoned them.”
“Mom, I’m sorry you had a rough day,” Elsie told...
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 11.10.2024 |
|---|---|
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Kinder- / Jugendbuch |
| ISBN-13 | 979-8-3509-7457-7 / 9798350974577 |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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