Miss Little's Gift

In a compelling and beautifully illustrated story, award-winning author Douglas Wood tells of the teacher who led him to love reading, in spite of his ADHD.

Douglas is the youngest, smallest, and newest student in his second-grade class, and he doesn’t like reading. He doesn’t like sitting still. And he doesn’t like Miss Little, especially when she makes him stay after class day after day, forcing him to sound out lines and blobs and squiggles when he’d rather be throwing a football. Luckily Douglas likes the pictures in the book Miss Little has chosen for him, pictures that remind him of the lake his family visits every summer. Award-winning author Douglas Wood — the boy in the story — alludes to scenes from The Little Island, the first book that enticed him to read, in a tale that will resonate with many children with ADHD. It is also a heartwarming ode to a special teacher whose gentle persistence changed one little boy’s life forever.

In a compelling and beautifully illustrated story, award-winning author Douglas Wood tells of the teacher who led him to love reading, in spite of his ADHD.

Douglas is the youngest, smallest, and newest student in his second-grade class, and he doesn’t like reading. He doesn’t like sitting still. And he doesn’t like Miss Little, especially when she makes him stay after class day after day, forcing him to sound out lines and blobs and squiggles when he’d rather be throwing a football. Luckily Douglas likes the pictures in the book Miss Little has chosen for him, pictures that remind him of the lake his family visits every summer. Award-winning author Douglas Wood — the boy in the story — alludes to scenes from The Little Island, the first book that enticed him to read, in a tale that will resonate with many children with ADHD. It is also a heartwarming ode to a special teacher whose gentle persistence changed one little boy’s life forever.

Publishers Weekly

This tribute to the author’s second-grade teacher will resonate with those who struggle with reading. “I didn’t like school. I didn’t like sitting still. I didn’t like reading. And I didn’t like Miss Little.” Wood’s (Nothing to Do) story takes place during one of his numerous after-school sessions with Miss Little, who worked tirelessly “to help me learn how much fun reading could be.” Just as an unfocused student strays from a task, diversions from the classroom setting flesh out some of Wood’s life outside of school, e.g., his playground troubles or trips to a Minnesota lake. Burke (Naming Liberty) keeps his realistic oil paintings fresh with various perspectives, giving readers a bird’s-eye view of the classroom’s checkerboard floor or Wood’s view of the book he’s laboring to read, The Little Island by Margaret Wise Brown. A poignant final scene describes the author sending a copy of his first book, Old Turtle, to an elderly Miss Little, shown smiling and clutching it to her chest. Endnotes discuss how the author copes with his diagnosis of ADHD. Ages 4–7. (Aug.)

Douglas Wood is the author of A Quiet Place as well as the New York Times bestselling Can't Do series. His books Old Turtle and Old Turtle and the Broken Truth were both international bestsellers. He lives in a cabin in the woods of Minnesota. A studied naturalist, Douglas shares his knowledge of nature as a wilderness guide.