reluctant or epileptic? you decide...or maybe I did

I did not mind reading “Ashley and Junie B. Jones: a struggling reader make a connection to literacy” by Carol D Wickstrom, Joan Scott Curtis, Kayla Daniel, Karen Smith and Faryl Kander. Although, I started to get a bit irritated when I read the last page, but alas, I am getting ahead of myself.

So, this little girl, Ashley, was born prematurely and had experienced some other complications from being in the womb when her mother had toxemia. The previous sentence would have been a more sensitive way for the authors to have documented Ashley’s medical issues. Sadly, for Ashley, the authors note that some of Ashley’s medical side effects from her mother’s toxemia were surgeries on her eyes and bladder. Okay, I can see how the eye surgery is pertinent for the reader to grasp an understanding of a reason that Ashley may not be a good or interested reader, but the bladder surgery? I have never heard, maybe I am ignorant, of the bladder affecting reading habits or lack of?

This poor girl has her hardships with speech and reading outlined publicly, and to top it off she has her bladder issues smeared in black and white for all to see? Damn, how traumatizing would that be…immeasurable! Even if Ashley was a pseudonym, her mother is listed as an author – Kayla Daniel. The connection is not that hard to make.

I will continue. So, Ashley had these issues and is not interested in reading. She had a hard time remembering details. One day she witnessed an accident and afterwards is able to describe the situation she encountered. Because she can remember the details, which was something rare for her, her teachers and parents believe that she has to have an emotional attachment to something in order to retain it as a long term memory.

Well, Ashley gets a hold of this Junie B Jones book via a teacher, Joan, during an open house night at the high school. Ashley was only in elementary school during this time but throroughly enjoyed these books being read to her and became interested in see the text. The authors then posed the question “So can a book that is a higher reading level than the ability of the student become a catalyst for learning to read” (Wickstrom et al., 20)? Well, obviously, Ashley was totally into them. The question posed is not that simple of answer for Ashley is only one person, but what really ticked me off about this article is that the reader comes to find out that Ashley wasn’t a reluctant reader, SHE WAS EPILEPTIC! Part of her brain was in a constant state of seizure. After she began taking medicine “Ashley’s motor skis improved immediately…Her reading skills have improved, and Ashley is reading slightly above her grade” (20). This became an article that was not about higher level reading material intriguing the reluctant reader, but that the reluctant reader may be epileptic?

After writing this commentary, I realize, I don’t like this article at all and I retract my opening paragraph statement. The fact that it took 5 people to write it is mind blowing.

Though, Junie B. Jones, a series book may be beneficial to a reluctant reader, this article only would provoke a parent that is a hypochondriac to take his or her child to a neurologist.

Wickstrom, Carol D., Joan Scott Curtis, Kayla Daniel, Karen Smith, Faryl Kander. 2005. "Ashley and Junie B. Jones: A struggling reader makes a connection to literacy," Language Arts 83(1): 16-21.