Onionhead

Set in Indianapolis, Indiana in the 1950-60s ONIONHEAD tells the story of a girl who is born with learning disabilities in a time when learning disabilities were not regarded as such. In Onionhead's time learning disabilities were cured with a paddle. As Onionhead goes through life she is always in trouble. She desperately wants to please her parents, but no matter how hard she tries she never meets their expectations. And God is disappointed with her too because she is too embarrassed to walk to the front of the church and accept Jesus as her personal savior.

More than anything in the world, Onionhead wants a horse. She knows she would be good at horses, and then people would be proud of her for something. Her parents promise her that, if she can get a B average in school, they will buy her a horse. But a B average is a fence too high for Onionhead to clear.

When a sudden tragedy results in the adoption of four new siblings, Onionhead is overwhelmed. She retreats into the sanctuary of her own mind where she ponders many things. And she reads book after book after book.

Onionhead arrives at the 60s a bewildered and angry girl. It seems she is just not cut out to be good. No matter how hard she tries to make people happy she is confronted by their sad faces. On TV she sees people taking different paths from that which her parents choose for her. Maybe she should just get on board with free love and rock-and-roll. Maybe she should just go.

Onionhead becomes an outlaw, but the path she has chosen leads nowhere near where she thought it would.

Ms. Barnhart is a writer, developmental psychologist, and a horsewoman. She lives with her husband in Arkansas.