7 /10 1 Votes
Originally published 1976 | 3.5/5 Goodreads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Acorn People is the name of a nonfiction book for middle grade readers, written by author, educator and storyteller Ron Jones and first published in 1976. It was adapted for television in 1981.
Contents
The acorn people part i
Summary
Ron Jones looks forward to his summer at Camp Wiggin, where he will work as a camp counselor. Although he knows the children who attend Camp Wiggin are disabled, he assumes he will still be able to have fun enjoying the outdoors, hiking, swimming and boating at the camp. He gets very discouraged in the beginning and says some pretty harsh things. When he arrives and meets the children, however, he is at first appalled at how severely disabled they are. Once he gets to know the children, he really starts to fall for them and even gets attached to the camp. When the camp ends, he is even discouraged to see the children leave.
Then Jones meets his group of children—a group called "The Acorn People." They have given themselves this name because of the acorn necklaces they make at camp. Over time, they teach their counselor that despite their disabilities, they are just like everyone else on the inside and that they are capable of accomplishing much more than he previously understood. Jones comes to care for and love these children as much as the full-time staff at Camp Wiggins.
The Acorn People was honored as the Christian Book of the Year.
Main characters
This story begins at Camp Wiggens, a camp that is suited to handicap children. Ron Jones is a camp counselor and is also in charge of five of the campers along with a man named Dominic. Ron didn't expect Camp Wiggens to be such a hard job, as he took the job thinking that the kids were not so severely disabled.