Product Description

Sahara Jones, traumatised by her father's abandnment of her and her mother, does none of her schoolwork, even though she loves reading and writing in secret. Everyone at school calls her Sahara Special, because she has to study with the special needs teacher out in the corridor at school. Her mother, however, objects to this, so Sahara moves from Special Needs Class to repeat 5th Grade, which is when she meets the eccentric and inspiring class teacher, Miss Pointy. Under Miss Pointy's unorthodox tutelage the whole class blossoms, but especially Sahara who, it is revealed, has a great gift for writing. Sahara is truly special after all.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1195256 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

From Amazon.com
Esmé Raji Codell, author of the bestselling Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year, makes her children's book debut with the warm, funny novel Sahara Special. "Can't a woman get a divorce without her kid going special ed on her?" This is the question Sahara's mother asks her daughter after a huge stack of letters that she'd written to her dad (but never mailed) falls out of her locker and on to her teacher's feet. When those letters are confiscated and locked up in the school counselor's filing cabinet, Sahara decides she will stop supplying "evidence" to the school; she stops doing her assignments, and is subsequently paired up with a Special Needs teacher, a fate equivalent to being "the street person of a school." What no one knows is that the newly dubbed "Sahara Special" is really "Sahara Jones, Secret Writer," a girl who hides her Heart-Wrenching Life Story and Amazing Adventures behind a public library shelf. No one, that is, until her show-stealing, deliciously unorthodox fifth-grade teacher Madame Poitier (Miss Pointy) arrives on the scene to remind her, so simply, that "a writer writes." Any child with a secret self (every child) will revel in Sahara's clear-sighted observations and sense of humor about a world that doesn't see who she really is. As in Sharon Creech's Love That Dog, readers will meet a likeable, difficult-at-first student and an extraordinary teacher who transforms lives by sharing her love of story and words. Highly recommended. (Ages 9 to 11) --Karin Snelson

From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6-In this delightful first novel, readers meet Sahara Jones in the school hallway, where she's been pulled out of class for sessions with the Special Needs teacher. It seems that Sahara's official school file is filled with her letters to her father, who had left the family, instead of her completed assignments. Sahara is a secretive writer; she fills her journal at home, then rips out the pages and stuffs them on the public library shelves behind the 940s for someone to discover someday. At her mother's insistence, the girl is taken out of the Special Needs program but is forced to repeat fifth grade. Enter a new teacher, Madame Poitier, who encourages her class to do, to write, to be, as never before. Sahara is sweeter than Harriet the Spy, as needy and engaging as Ramona, and is sure to be a character whom children will want to read about and get to know. Codell's take on fifth graders, teachers, Special Needs students, and mothers is very funny, and underneath the humor glows real warmth and love. A special novel that readers will not be able to put down.
Linda Beck, Indian Valley Public Library, Telford, PA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Sahara Jones (aka "Sahara Special") is a writer, a reader, thedaughter of divorced parents, and a repeat fifth-grader who has "gonespecial ed." In this accomplished reading, Phylicia Rashad capturesCodell's feisty heroine as she expresses a tangle of emotions. Hercharacterization of the cooing special needs teacher who provides"individualized attention" by way of useless board games draws thelistener squarely into Sahara's court. When, at last, Saharaencounters her new teacher, Miss Pointy--dressed out with imaginationand a joyful approach to life--Rashad nails the educator'siconoclastic enthusiasm and captures the new empowerment of herstudents, from the belligerent Darrell Sikes to the now gentle andlovable Sahara Jones. T.B. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Sahara Special
Sahara Special is comedy and drama blended together with rich character. Sahara's father leaves her, and she is heartbroken. She writes letters to him, telling him she loves him, and misses him. After she writes her letters she has no idea where to mail them, so she keeps them in her desk, hoping nobody will find them. One day the letters tumble out at her feet, and her teachers feet too. Sahara's teacher insists that she be put in Special Education. When Miss. Pointy comes though, things change. She doesn't believe in Special Education and she is like no other teacher. Sahara hopes to make a new start. Miss. Pointy and her beliefs support Sahara to show her true self. Esme Raji Codell wrote Sahara like a dream. Sahara was a talented girl, She changes throughout the book. Codell made the change gradual, so she changed slowly along the way. Codell wrote Sahara Special like a regular book, but there was something in the character and the description. I personally felt like I was in the book, right by Sahara's side.

Sahara Special
Sahara Special is comedy and drama blended together with rich character. Sahara Jones' father leaves her, and she is heartbroken. She writes letters to him, telling him she loves him, and misses him. After she writes her letters she has no idea where to mail them, so she keeps them in her desk, hoping nobody will find them. One day the letters tumble out at her feet, and her teachers feet too. Sahara's teacher insists that she be put in Special Education. When Miss. Pointy comes though, things change. She doesn't believe in Special Education and she is like no other teacher. Sahara hopes to make a new start. Miss. Pointy and her beliefs support Sahara to show her true self. Esme Raji Codell wrote Sahara like a dream. Sahara was a talented girl, She changes throughout the book. Codell made the change gradual, so she changed slowly along the way. Codell wrote Sahara Special like a regular book, but there was something in the character and the description. I personally felt like I was in the book, right by Sahara's side.

a magical read-aloud, or a laugh-out-loud read-to-yourself
sahara jones has been pulled out of special ed, and is repeating fifth grade. her new teacher, the unconventional ms. pointy, doesn't believe in labeling students or readng the RECORDS (at least, untill the end of the school year). so she and sahara have the luxury of a fresh start. with love and humor, ms. codell describes their heart-warming journey. a sparkly sticker for this funny, wonderful book.