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.

 

There are 192 pages in this book. This book was published 2004 by Hachette Children's Group .

Esme Raji Codell is the author of the bestselling Educating Esme , a memoir about her first year teaching in Chicago, as well as several books for children, including Sahara Special and Seed by Seed . You can visit her at PlanetEsme. Blogspot. com.