Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio is a memoir of author
Peg Kehret's childhood experience of
polio.[1] The book won the
Golden Kite Award in 1997.
Characters
Peg: Main character and narrator of the story, diagnosed with polio.
Karen: Peg's best friend at school
Tommy: Peg's hospital roommate at University Hospital, in an
iron lung.
Renee: Sheltering Arms roommate, who goes home for
Christmas.
Shirley: Sheltering Arms roommate, who has the worst polio and likes marshmallows.
Alice: Sheltering Arms roommate, who has been there for ten years. Her parents didn't want to take care of her because she was so badly crippled, and she became a
ward of the state. Later she dies from Polio.
Dorothy: Sheltering Arms roommate, who longs to be in leg braces to go home. She is able to return home because her family builds her a ramp.
Mrs. Crab: Peg's physical therapist at University Hospital, whom Peg doesn't like. She gives her Torture Time: hot packs and stretching. Peg highly disliked her.