When Pigs Fly

I thought When Pigs Fly was a really great story. It had so many elements mixed in to it - poverty, special needs children, divorce, alcohol and more. I was particularly moved by Buddy's best friend - Jiniwin. She was the neglected child of divorced parents who turned to alcohol for her escape. Her character seemed very real to me. I think that as a teacher it is hard to always get to know your students - especially on a high school level where you might have 5 or 6 classes of 25 students in each class. It is easy to get annoyed at a student who falls asleep in class or doesn't do his/her homework, but we never know what the real backstory might be about what is going on at home.

I think this would be a great novel to use in a classroom to bring up the idea of acceptance of special needs students. All to often, special needs students might be forced into an unwanted spotlight of attention and I think that students - starting at a young age - should be able to have a forum to discuss how students might be different and how to handle and accept these differences. When Pigs Fly is the perfect starting point to open up topics that might be harder for students to bring to the table on their own. I tutor in a learning center and we have a young woman who comes in who only has one leg - due to a birth defect. The other students all love her and her beautiful smile and her positive attitude. Every once in awhile we get a new student who might stare at Jasmine. She smiles at them and encourages them to ask her about herself. She says that she would rather educate people about her life rather than have them talk about her or wonder about her.

I do not know anyone with Down Syndrome, but this book really captured a beautiful and innocent essence of Reenie. She has a big heart and just seems to try to find the nice things in life and Buddy's life is only made better becuase of her.