Miss Little's Gift
Miss Little’s Gift
by Douglas Wood
illustrated by Jim Burke
Candlewick 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7636168-6-1(hardcover)
Douglas is the youngest, smallest, and newest student in his second-grade class, and he doesn’t like reading. He doesn’t like sitting still. And he doesn’t like Miss Little, especially when she makes him stay after class day after day, forcing him to sound out lines and blobs and squiggles when he’d rather be throwing a football. Luckily Douglas likes the pictures in the book Miss Little has chosen for him, pictures that remind him of the lake his family visits every summer. Award-winning author Douglas Wood — the boy in the story — alludes to scenes from The Little Island, the first book that enticed him to read, in a tale that will resonate with many children with ADHD. It is also a heartwarming ode to a special teacher whose gentle persistence changed one little boy’s life forever.
Awards

Selected as one of the Smithsonian Institution's Notable Books for Children 2009

“In a second-grade classroom in 1950's Iowa—decades before a condition we now know as ADHD was recognized—a perceptive teacher saw that one child needed individual tutoring before he could learn to read.  The author’s recollection of his own childhood experience is a tribute to teachers everywhere.” —Smithsonian.com

Nomimated in the Children's Book category for a Minnesota Book Award
Reviews

Award-winning author Douglas Wood – the boy in the story – alludes to scenes from The Little Island, the first book that enticed him to read, in a tale that will resonate with many children with ADHD.
―EducationNews.org

This autobiographical picture book chronicles the author’s struggles in second grade. Smaller than everyone else, new in town, and speaking with an unfamiliar Southern accent, Wood also found reading to be a chore. Miss Little had him remain after school each day, and while he was at first resentful of the attention, her patience and careful choice of reading material eventually won him over. The story works as a tribute to those unsung teacher heroes whose dedication to their craft and native intuition about children have changed lives... The book also works as a tribute to Golden MacDonald’s (Margaret Wise Brown’s) The Little Island (Random, 1946). It is that gentle but quietly magical tale that Miss Little wisely used as a teaching tool, and that showed the boy that learning to read was worth his time because the book truly spoke to him. Burke’s large, realistic oils, with their rich greens and blues, complement the story nicely. In an author’s note, Wood discusses ADHD.
―School Library Journal

This tribute to the author’s second-grade teacher will resonate with those who struggle with reading... A poignant final scene describes the author sending a copy of his first book, Old Turtle, to an elderly Miss Little, shown smiling and clutching it to her chest. Endnotes discuss how the author copes with his diagnosis of ADHD.
―Publishers Weekly
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