Tag Archives: wagon

362N: Special-Needs Neighbor Girl

My mother has tasked me into finding a book for her that she read when she was young in the 1960s. She thinks it was published around this time. Here are the best details I could extract from her:
 
  1. Neighbor writes about mentally retarded neighbor girl
  2. Nonfiction, told from the perspective of the a neighbor reflecting about a neighbor girl growing up mentally retarded, with that neighbor girl eventually dying. Mom thinks the word “Wagon” is in the title. She also believes that the story had something to do with a wagon in the yard. Also, the neighbor telling the story had a boyfriend or a crush on a boy.
My mother stated that she wasn’t sure if the girl had Down syndrome or not, as this was before she even knew what that was, so she described it as “mentally retarded”. Those were all the details I could extrapolate, hoping you can help. That book brings a lot of nostalgia for my mother and will be a birthday present if I can get a name of the book.