Roll With It

In Chapter 9, Sumner continues to present Ellie and her grandpa side-by-side to suggest that not all disabilities are the same and that not all individuals with disabilities are the same. As such, decisions concerning care vary widely. When Ellie catches her mother considering assisted living for Jonah, she is afraid that she will be sent to an assisted living facility as well. According to Ellie’s internal monologue, she is aware of the difference: “I mean, I know what’s going on with Grandpa is not like what’s going on with me. I’m not getting sicker. I’m not a danger to myself or other people. It’s different. But it feels the same” (158). The first-person account has a certain tone—“I know […] I’m not […] I’m not”—that draws attention to Ellie’s sense of independence amid her worries about losing that independence. Ellie’s situation with her disability also gets compared to Rita’s disability, a CP student she knew in elementary school. Unlike Ellie, Rita’s parents were not able to provide sufficient care for her. As such, she too was placed in assisted living. While Ellie is the protagonist, there are therefore multiple representations of physical and developmental disabilities throughout the novel. Through the juxtaposition of these disabilities, particularly in Chapter 9, Sumner works to help readers understand that each case of disability is diverse and individual.

In Chapters 9 and 10, Ellie continues her journey toward Finding Belonging With Family and Friends. In Chapter 9, Bert and Coralee show up to provide Ellie with an alternative to the Valentine’s dance, and Alice drives them to play miniature golf at a course built by Bert’s brothers. At the end of the day, she says that it is one of the best days that she can remember having. Part of her evaluation of this experience is the sense of belonging that she feels with her peers. Sumner subverts a conventional mainstay of middle-grade or young adult fiction, a school dance, to present an inclusive activity that has been adapted for Ellie. This is further built upon in Chapter 10 when Ellie presents a baking lesson to her class and perceives it as going well, as one student poses a question, and she receives applause. Baking as a motif in the novel signals Ellie’s increasing understanding of her family and friends, and this scene highlights a significant development in that Ellie bakes something that pleases a crowd. Ellie is so excited by this response that she brings it up in conversation with Coralee and Bert at lunch. Her sense of belonging, however, is called into question again when Coralee asserts that regardless of how good her speech was, she will never be seen as “normal.” This creates a period of conflict relating to the theme of belonging.

Chapters 10 and 11 address more of the Common Challenges Faced by People With a Disability with Ellie’s loss of consciousness and subsequent hospitalization. These chapters display the more frequent hospitalizations experienced by many in the CP community. For Ellie, this part of the disability is the most difficult part. This section of the book alters the pace by swerving suddenly from social conflicts to the primary external conflict revolving around Ellie navigating her physical environment. Sumner also displays the week-long period of bed-rest necessary for Ellie’s recovery. This slows the pace again after the sudden hospitalization. The temporality of this section allows Sumner to convey the realities of CP and resolve the conflict between Ellie and Coralee by generating a period of separation followed by a reunion.

Chapter 12 specifically addresses the topic of disability and visibility. Visibility is a pertinent topic concerning disability as some disabilities are visible while others are not. Ellie has a visible disability. Therefore, throughout the novel, Ellie expresses her desire to be seen as a rounded person, not just a person with a disability. This issue reaches a resolution in Chapter 12 when she returns to school after being hospitalized with pneumonia. People at school begin to see her as an individual at this point in the story. This is a significant move forward in the plot as it shows her belonging not just to a small group of people but belonging in the school setting as a whole.