Sarah's Library

11/08 - Temperance, the character and book itself, has completely drawn me in.  I understand exactly what Temperance is going through with the kids at school.  My experiences had nothing to do with the taint of mental disease, but I was excluded by the majority of the class throughout my school years and into tertiary education.  I would attempt to join a group of classmates, in the classroom or out in the playground, and they would get up and leave when they saw me coming.  That behaviour has coloured my life ever since.  So when I read about that happening to someone else, even a fictional character, I tear up a little.  I just want to shake the kids, and even more so the adults, until their heads rattle and their attitudes change.

I was surprised when I got to the end, it didn't feel like an ending, I felt like we should have heard more from 8-year-old Temperance than we did.