Onionhead

When Onionhead is born her father is dismayed. First of all, she's not a boy, and, second, she's ugly. Onionhead comes from the womb screaming, "Why? Who says? and No!" She almost kills her mother. What transpires is a story about what it's like to grow up with learning disabilities in the 1950-60s when learning disabilities were called lazy, wiggle-worm, and stubborn. Onionhead's tale meanders through childhood mishaps, the inability to learn in school, make friends, or please her parents. When a tragedy results in the adoption of four new siblings, Onionhead retreats into the sanctuary of her own mind. There she ponders the existence of God, the mysteries of race, the justification of war, civil disobedience, and horses, horses, horses the only thing she wants in the whole wide world. Adolescence finds a bewildered Onionhead confronting the tumultuous 60s. The Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam war, hippies and Beatles. It all sets Onionhead's mind on fire. So many of her assumptions about life seem to be wrong. She doesn't know what to believe, or even if there is anything to believe. Within the wildness of the world Onionhead earns the love of a beautiful horse,and the love of a beautiful boy. she walks through death and betrayal. She becomes and outlaw, and perhaps is saved by the consequences of her bad behavior.

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.