STAR Reading Tests Results:  grade 6 students brought their STAR reading reports home for signatures today, and grade 7 students will take them home for signatures tomorrow.

No Ordinary Day Summary: (chapters 8-15)  Dr. Indra takes Valli to the hospital where she checks her feet and gives her a good meal.  The highlight of the day for Valli was looking through a microscope at her own blood.  Her happiness is shattered, however, when she wakes up the following morning and sees lepers in her dormitory.  She runs away and begins living on the streets again.  Her difficulty in readjusting to homelessness after such promise was held out to her is manifested in her meanness and sadness.  She manages to get into a mall where she steals from a table in the food court and tries to buy a book before getting thrown out.  Finally, she faces the truth that she needs to go back to the hospital.  At the hospital, no one knows what to do with her until Dr. Indra arrives.  She presents Valli with two options:  stay for treatment and respect the lepers or go back to the streets.  She decides to stay.  Her first revelation comes when she really looks at the tea lady (leper) for the first time.  She finds that she is able to look past her missing nose and fingers.  All her tiredness catches up to her, and she spends a lot of time sleeping in her very first bed.  During her waking hours, she wants to learn as much as she can.  She learns about the circulatory system and how to make pie charts.  She is given her first Christmas present and her first hug.  When the book ends, she is about to taste ice cream for the first time. 

JL