Woodpecker Girl

About this book

Bank Street College of Education Best Book of 2021 School Library Journal Best Book Winner 2020 Based on an actual story, a girl with cerebral palsy feels trapped in her body and unable to communicate. It causes her to grunt in anger, scaring off children and making it impossible to make friends. When her art teacher straps a paintbrush to her head, the children nickname her "Woodpecker Girl". But the girl begins to paint her thoughts and feelings and her talent bursts through. Illustrator Huang mimicked the girl's style for the book and the girl's real paintings are displayed in the backmatter. A Note from Yipei's mother: Yipei is such a lucky girl because she is surrounded by family and teachers who love her. She couldn't hold a pencil, so her teachers first taught her to draw using a computer. At that time, she was drawing random lines and applying layers of color. She truly learned to draw and paint after she finished junior high school. Her vocational teacher at the National Hemei Experimental School, Mr. Chi-hai Tsai, immediately believed in her and accepted her into the art department. He carefully observed her and realized that what she could control most was her head. That's when he got the idea to create the headset - a headband with a paintbrush attached - for her to use to paint. Everything started from that magical moment. Yipei went from black-and-white paintings to colorful paintings and from simple thick lines to thin lines with delicate dotted images. What my daughter has achieved is beyond our imagination. Yipei could never be the woodpecker painter without Mr. Tsai. Every time I see Yipei wearing her headset-nodding and nodding and nodding to dot the paper with paints - I worry she will get too tired. But whenever I ask her, "Are you tired now? Do you need to rest?" she always says, "Of course I am tired, but I like painting so much." I think painting brings her both happiness and a sense of achievement. It has broadened her view of life and truly made it colorful.