Wheels

About the Book

Wheels Summary Affectionately called “Wheels” because he’s in a wheelchair, the main character is in his final year of high school and should be graduating, but his marks leave that in doubt. He avoids unpleasant things but that makes problems worse. Wheels attracts equally apathetic friends. His outgoing personality (and the fact that he soon turns the legal age to buy smokes and liquor for them) make him popular. He realizes that he will probably be back next year, but he doesn’t care. A teacher lectures him about his unfinished assignments, wasted year, and ability to do better. Wheels becomes so angry that he decides to get even by making the class hell for her. That results in frequent visits to the principal’s office and Wheels becoming even more angry. The sudden death of a friend shakes him up. He realizes life is too short to waste it in school another year. He and a friend decide on a final effort to do a project that could get them a pass to graduate. They want to “pimp out” Wheels’s electric wheelchair and finally do convince their teacher to let them try it. They enthusiastically fit the chair with custom lights, wheels, etc. The wheelchair is stolen, and though recovered, it is stripped. They are upset but turn that anger into fixing the chair and hoping to graduate. The final scene is graduation as the graduates are introduced. Have Wheels and his friend made it?

About the Author

Mary Winkelmann grew up on Canada’s East Coast where storytelling was a regular part of life. She attended one of the last one-room schools for elementary school and there discovered the power of descriptive words. Winkelmann began writing for fun and, through the years, added photography to journalism for local papers. Winkelmann draws on her experience with special needs students to bring Wheels to life.