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About Samantha Abeel

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Samantha Abeel Samantha Abeel was a bright child who had a gift with language, yet struggled with simple math problems. As she grew older, the disparity grew wider. An excellent poet and writer, she could not tell time or even calculate simple addition or subtraction. Samantha Abeel's Timeline In high school Samantha becomes socially awkward. She begins pulling herself away from her friends. Feb11, 1989 Apr10, 1990 Samantha writes her first book about disabilities. Her parents were determined to get their daughter's first book published. Samantha Abeel was a gifted child who excelled at language arts, yet she often had trouble with seemingly simple math problems. In her seventh-grade creative writing class, Samantha found refuge from the endless classes focused on math, measurements and algebra. Samantha Abeel is an enthusiastic 16-year-old who has no problem preparing for national book tours, reading her poetry at autograph sessions, appearing on talk radio or even addressing educational. An Interview with Samantha Abeel. Schools in the Middle, v4 n3 p27-28 Feb 1995 In this interview, 16-year-old Samantha Abeel, who is learning-disabled in math, describes the frustrations of dealing with seventh-grade responsibilities like locker combinations, unfamiliar teachers, and algebra.

Abeel's charged autobiography about growing up both learning-disabled and gifted may be better suited for parents and teachers than children. Offering an intimate documentary, the author analyzes each stage of her life from an adult perspective, periodically recreating significant moments in her development—and using adult language to do so: 'There was no truer feeling of joy or of all-consuming passion than when I had an opportunity to use my imagination in creative play.' She examines her painful childhood, when she felt isolated from her peers and was fraught with anxieties about her inability to measure time and distance ('I feel so far away from everyone, removed, alone in my ignorance. I am terrified there is something really wrong with me,' Abeel writes of sitting through a fourth grade math class). The author evokes the rush of relief she felt when, at age 13, she was finally diagnosed with dyscalculia. She recounts the encouragement she received to develop her talent as a writer, and traces her growing fame after her first book, Reach for the Moon , was published at age 15. Despite her triumphs, however, Abeel frankly admits that some obstacles in her path will never go away. Her memoir, expressing both her talents and her intense frustration at not being able to perform everyday tasks like telling time and making change, conjures a haunting, intriguing portrait of a lonely outsider using creative outlets to earn acceptance from herself and others. Ages 12-up. (Nov.)

Samantha Abeel Family