Manyebook

Piggy

The story of a young girl's struggle and ultimate victory over disability. Piggy (Big in the original Dutch), like Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is told in the first person by an autistic child. Twelve-year-old Lizzy Bekell lives with her mother and attends a special school. Her nickname is Dizzy, which aptly describes the dreamy abstraction that overcomes her when she is faced with things she finds unpleasant or uncomfortable. She spends her free time waiting at the bus stop (without ever getting on a bus) or standing against a streetlamp and watching other children play. She is often teased and bullied. Lizzy's behavior feels familiar, like an exaggerated version of our own fears, and even her strangeness seems like a reasonable response to a threatening world. Everything changes, however, when she meets Abigail, a girl perfectly capable of standing up to other kids. Abigail sees in Lizzy an easy mark, someone so trusting that she can be easily manipulated. At the same time, Abigail, herself a lonely girl, hopes that Lizzy will be her friend. When Abigail comes up with a plan to wreak vengeance on the boys who've been teasing them, she finds it easy to make Lizzy an accomplice. Lizzy is soon faced with events that challenge her to overcome the closed, internal world of autism. How far can Lizzy allow herself to be manipulated before she stands up to Abigail?

  • Format
  • hardcover
  • Pages
  • 32
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9781590786369
  • Genres
  • childrens, disability
  • Release date
  • 2008