Dear Lettar,
My Papa boesn’t like me like he likes my sistar, Omotejohwo. We call her Johwo. Papa saib that I yam an imbecill, a bunbie and so he prefer to have my Mama dorn a dady doy than me. Lettar, do you know that everybay I use to cry decause I yam afraib of him. I always fear when he comes to home. I use to go and hibe unber my deb that have tear everywhere.


Set in Ughelli, Nigeria, the story being narrated in the first person by the main protagonist, Atarhe, follows her ordeal as she battles with three main conflicts: parental, self and societal. Born with a mental condition known as SCT- Sluggish cognitive tempo to a doting Mother and an uncaring Father who never cared to seek help for their eldest daughter challenged with mental growth and alertness, Atarhe soon learns she is different from everybody, particularly in thoughts and actions – a fact she has to struggle with both at home and amongst her peers in school. Back at home, her Father, often calling her slowpoke, failure, stupid child, dumb head, has another habit of comparing her with her intelligent younger sister, Johwo. At school, she is only popular because she falls in the category of the NFA pupils – an acronym for no future ambition. Finding solace only in scribbling her thoughts in her lettars which she carefully keeps in a bucket under her bed, Atarhe goes about with her fate until her prayer for a new class teacher is answered and she gets a chance to be better and even prove everybody wrong about being a failure and a child of no dreams.

http://www.bukrepublik.com/blog/2016/05/07/book-review-ufuoma-bakporhes-lettars-from-an-slowpoke/

This is some real thinking out of the box. Nice!