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A review by liannakiwi
Claudia's Friend by Ann M. Martin
2.0
(LL)
I had to rate this book again after pondering this is over night, which I don’t usually do, however, this is an important topic.
This book had a confusing and problematic approach towards learning disabilities, which is why I had a feeling this book would be bad. Claudia had all the classic signs of dyslexia, yet they refuse to say she has a learning disability. In fact, they say she was tested as a child and they found no signs of a learning disability, which based on all the facts from the books so far would say otherwise. Claudia wasn’t able to spell the word “shoe” correctly at 13 years of age...and she spelled it wrong with two different spellings: the first was “shu” and the second was “sho.”
They also made the resource center out to be this terrible place where “dumb” kids go for help. They call it the “challenged room” at the end, and yes this was written in the 1990’s, and that it’s still never an okay message to present to impressionable children reading the series. Especially if some of the readers suffer from a learning disability like dyslexia. Very disappointed in this.
They could have said Claudia had all these issues so they could slowly lead up to this book and have it make more sense and finally justify why both Claudia had such a hard time spelling and why the authors spent so much of Claudia’s personality on her terrible English skills.
As an aside: the way Claudia was able to worn with Shea is the only reason I didn’t give the book one star.
I had to rate this book again after pondering this is over night, which I don’t usually do, however, this is an important topic.
This book had a confusing and problematic approach towards learning disabilities, which is why I had a feeling this book would be bad. Claudia had all the classic signs of dyslexia, yet they refuse to say she has a learning disability. In fact, they say she was tested as a child and they found no signs of a learning disability, which based on all the facts from the books so far would say otherwise. Claudia wasn’t able to spell the word “shoe” correctly at 13 years of age...and she spelled it wrong with two different spellings: the first was “shu” and the second was “sho.”
They also made the resource center out to be this terrible place where “dumb” kids go for help. They call it the “challenged room” at the end, and yes this was written in the 1990’s, and that it’s still never an okay message to present to impressionable children reading the series. Especially if some of the readers suffer from a learning disability like dyslexia. Very disappointed in this.
They could have said Claudia had all these issues so they could slowly lead up to this book and have it make more sense and finally justify why both Claudia had such a hard time spelling and why the authors spent so much of Claudia’s personality on her terrible English skills.
As an aside: the way Claudia was able to worn with Shea is the only reason I didn’t give the book one star.