Why Did It Happen To Me?

"Carla gets very bad news from her doctor. Something is wrong with the baby she is carrying. She turns to her family for help and advice, but she keeps asking, 'Why did it happen to me?"' (Back Cover)

This book is one of those gems that come from learners who find that writing, as Carla says, "took a lot of heaviness off [my] chest." The book is a straightforward telling of a hard time that has no magical happy ending.

The book is 26 pages long, many of them with clear black and white photographs. Very beginning readers can manage the book and more advanced readers are caught up in the story. One instructor used the book in an assessment with a new student, and the student didn't want to stop. Even in an assessment, she was too interested in the story to be willing to quit reading.

Marie from Nanaimo says, "I had something a little similar to hers in 1995 also…her book really touched me and to this day it still hurts, so …I'm glad that someone else knows where I'm coming from."

A learner from White Rock writes, “That’s some story. You can tell it’s a true story. Makes you feel thankful of life. A good healing book for others to read. Anybody who’s lost a child would read this and not feel so alone.”

Finally, Angelina Beaudin from Victoria says, “It is full of courage, love and togetherness...Carla is an incredible woman for facing her difficult choice with courage, and for writing her story down for others to read.”

Although the story ends on a sad note, "[Carla] wants people to know that, three years later, she and her boyfriend had a baby boy."

Why Did It Happen To Me can be used as class reading, with individuals, for sequencing exercises, for retelling the story through the pictures, or as a writing start. Another possibility would be to write a letter to Carla about her book.