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Erin J Kahn

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Erin is Currently Reading

Erin J Kahn is currently reading

Rebels: The Irish Rising of 1916

by Peter de Rosa

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Feb 12, 2026 12:03PM

Erin J Kahn rated a book it was amazing

The Double Life of a Wheelchair User

by Rob Keeley (Goodreads Author)

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Erin J Kahn said: " I've been a fan of Rob Keeley's since he invited me to read his MG ghost story Childish Spirits and it blew me away. The Double Life of a Wheelchair User isn't a ghost story, but it has the same charm, humor, and sweetness that made me fall in love w I've been a fan of Rob Keeley's since he invited me to read his MG ghost story Childish Spirits and it blew me away. The Double Life of a Wheelchair User isn't a ghost story, but it has the same charm, humor, and sweetness that made me fall in love with his earlier books. So, needless to say, I loved it.

At the start of the story, Will attends a school for children with disabilities. A good writer and exemplary English student, he gets invited to start attending the fancy Station Road school, where he'll test whether a wheelchair user can succeed at a school for "normal" kids.

Chaos ensues.

For one thing, Will quickly gets himself a girlfriend at Station Road. That's great...except that he already has one at Marlowe Park. When both girls visit his home on the same day, things get complicated.

Then there's Sam, the school bully at Station Road, who sees Will as easy prey.

There's also Will's creative imagination, which sometimes gets him into trouble.

But in the end, his tender heart, natural spunk, and ability to laugh at himself see Will through. Sure, there are some growing pains, and you may find yourself cringing at some of his actions, but if you remember that awkward phase between childhood and adulthood, you won't begrudge him too much.

While most of the book is lighthearted and humorous, it has its serious moments. About midway through the book, one of Will's classmates at Marlowe Park passes away unexpectedly. Will, who argued with the boy right before his fatal accident, now has to grapple with his guilt, knowing he'll never get to apologize.

The novel also shows some of the challenges that, for children like Will, are often just part of life, whether it's getting bullied by ableist jerks or putting up with plaster casts and other inconveniences.

While it had its serious moments, I read most of this book with a smile on my face. Will's antics are very amusing, especially when his imagination carries him away. At one point he thinks he's gone through a time warp and assumes that the fate of the world now rests on his shoulders.

According to the author, this work is semi-autobiographical, and I enjoyed seeing that shine through. I don't know just how much is based on the author's own experiences (I hope the two girlfriends part is true), but Will's spunk and creativity definitely seemed to be drawn from life, and I imagine the author knows from personal experience the difficulty, and sometimes the fun, of balancing two worlds.

"Write what you know" is sound advice. At the end of the day, I think this may be one of my favorite books by Rob. I'm giving it four stars only because, to get a five-star rating, the book has to like, blow my mind or something.

(No, Edward, of course it doesn't beat Childish Spirits.) ...more "

Feb 12, 2026 01:35PM · see review

Erin’s Quotes

“My son, your ineptitude is so vast, your incompetence so profound, that I am certain you are inhabited by greater power than I have ever known.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

tags: power

31 likes

“My own plans are made. While I can, I sail east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan’s country, or shot over the edge of the world into some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

tags: c-s-lewis, dawn-treader, reepicheep, voyage-of-the-dawn-treader

144 likes

“Your emotional capacity is an empty motor, and your values are the fuel with which your mind fills it. If you choose a mix of contradictions, it will clog your motor, corrode your transmission and wreck you on your first attempt to move with a machine which you, the driver, have corrupted.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

tags: contradictions, emotions

22 likes

“He was about as stupid as an animal could be and still live.”
― Roy Chapman Andrews, R11 DAYS OF DINOSAURS

tags: dinosaurs, intelligence

2 likes

“The moon was gone, but to the magician's eyes the unicorn was the moon, cold and white and very old, lighting his way to safety, or to madness.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

30 likes

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No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read it!) Goodreads honors wordsmiths: poets and poetry promoted and prompted here. ~~~ "Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." -- Carl Sandburg “God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin “If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn’t wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.” —Donald Hall “Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” —Boris Pasternak “Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” —Charles Simic “Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.” —Gustave Flaubert “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” —Allen Ginsberg. ~~~~~ Amy King, Moderator Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award (Women’s National Book Association). Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She serves on the executive board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and is co-editing with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology, Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She is also co-editing the anthology, Bettering American Poetry 2015, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College. ...more

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