Sarah Bennett is a lot like other girls her age: She has a loving family yet she longs to get out into the world and "try her wings." Sarah is different from other girls, though. She was born with cerebral palsy, which prevents her from walking and talking. In spite of her physical difficulties, Sarah speaks out, with the help of a symbol board attached to her wheelchair.

"Helfman supplies keen realism and compassionate descriptions of the girl's response to physical and emotional frustration, and her heroine is both introspective and outwardly determined. She thinks and feels with complexity." —School Library Journal

In 1967, when Elizabeth Helfman wrote a book called Signs and Symbols Around the World, she had no idea she would help change the way a lot of people communicate. On Being Sarahis based on the life of a real girl. It is one of a number of Elizabeth Helfman's writings that deal with the choices and challenges of people who use alternatives to oral speech.