This is a memoir of a 12-year-old girl who contracted polio, her experience with the disease itself and the recuperation afterward, and it's VERY fascinating.

First of all, this is yet another book I found while shelving the children's section when I worked at Barnes & Noble. It's written in a clear, simple, diary style that I imagine young grade schoolers would understand without difficulty, but that also perfectly conveys the fear and pain of the author's experiences. It's a very fast and easy read, and packed with all sorts of things that seem revelatory and alien-strange to a person like me, born and raised in a post-polio world.