Girl Who Couldn't Smile

Product Description

When Shane Dunphy starts work at Little Scamps cr?che, he has no idea what he has let himself in for. He had not worked in an early years setting for many years & on arriving for his first day he found that two members of staff, Susan & Tush, are at the end of their tether & on the verge of resigning. The children themselves are completely out of control. At the centre of this chaos Shane finds Tammy, a pretty, doll-like five-year-old who is a mystery to everyone: she does not talk, or even smile, yet shows signs of remarkable intelligence. Through the course of the year, Shane attempts to bring order to this motley group & we learn the stories of some of the other children in the cr?che: Milandra, an angry, violent four year old, the daughter of a Nigerian father & Irish mother; Rufus, a gypsy child who is direly neglected; Julie, a tiny, painfully shy little girl with Down's Syndrome. How is Shane ever to find a way to communicate with & ultimately befriend such diverse & challenging personalities? Then one afternoon, Gus, the class tear away, receives the gift of a blue crayon
- a crayon he claims is magic. & Shane begins to wonder if this magic could be the answer to all his problems. Shane Dunphy's moving portrait of a year at Little Scamps is a testament to the redemptive power of love & nurturing, of finding oneself through the care of others, as well as finding the secret of a girl who couldn't smile.