Eight-Year Old Recognized for Amazing Scholastic Turnaround

Ed Yeates ReportingMaking the impossible possible. This afternoon, Davis County student Emily Oliver received the Barton Scooter Award for being the most outstanding reader in her school. Even more amazing is one year ago no one thought she would she would even be eligible.

Eight-year old Emily Oliver is one of the best readers at Lakeside Elementary, but less than a year ago, she was considered fully illiterate.

David Oliver, Emily's Guardian: "She wasn't able to read, wasn't able to recognize even simple letters like A and B, couldn't make sounds of them, was unable to count past nine."

Emily's is in the custody of David and DeAnn Oliver. Her birth mother died last year. Up until then, Emily was pretty much taking care of her, supposedly home taught, but never going to school. In fact, she hardly went outside.

David Oliver: "Very little contact with anybody else, other than her mother."

But DeAnn and David, her teacher Mrs. Batchelor, and others have worked hard to give this remarkable girl four years of schooling in less than a year.

Emily Oliver: "You can put your mind to it and read. And then you just imagine you're in that book. It's just fun."

DeAnn Oliver: "She finally gets to be a kid. She can finally read and she can finally do the things that every kid she's ever watched on TV or out her window, she gets to be that kid."

Emily Oliver: "I had to read a Dr. Seuss book and I just fell in love with 'Green Eggs and Ham.'"

At reading and math she's a whiz, and she writes her name in cursive.

Emily Oliver: "It feels really good to know there's a world out there that you can just see."

David and DeAnn are now the legal guardians for Emily and they're in the process of adopting her. And why not, she already feels very, very comfortable in this family of seven.

Emily wants to be a doctor when she grows up, as she says, "to help people who are sad and sick."

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