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Summary: Finally, a voice for parents of special children
Review: This is a beautiful book! I am a parent of a recently diagnosed preschool son with a PDD-like diagnosis and I found myself weeping as I read it. The author puts on paper what I feel in my heart but am unable to find the words to express. This book provides an eloquent vision of both the beauty and courage of our atypical children as well as the emotional jouney we as parents find ourselves on. I wish I had read this book first as we began the long evaluation of our son by multiple specialists. And I wish all our "specialists" would read this book to improve their expertise. What a gifted writer and mother Beth Kephart is!
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Summary: GOOD BOOK
Review: THIS IS A GOOD BOOK FOR PARENTS THAT ARE INVOLEED WITH PDD OR AUTISIM. THEY HAVE TO KEEP IN MIND THOUGHH THAT EVER KID IS DIFFERENT AND WHAT WORK FOR JEREMEY MAY NOT WORK FOR THEM. THE BOOK STARTS OUT A LIITLE SLOW BUT STICK WITH IT.
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Summary: This is a great read
Review: Unlike most books about autistic children written by their mothers, this mom doesn't offer the difinitive methodology for "recovery", no recipe for success. She tells the story of herself and her son to tell what she has found to be the greatest truth of the parent child relationship - love matters. You do your best, you love your child, you teach him/her what is important. So many parents of autistic children, particularly those with very young children, are so afraid of the future, they want answers. You will not find those answers here. This doesn't tell you what to do, but suggests that whatever path you take, be sure it is full of love. This is a lovely book, beautifully written, sweetly told.
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Summary: This book is a GEM!
Review: What a beautiful surprise! I purchased this book based on a display where it was heralded as a nominated book for the national award. At home, reading the jacket, I realized this was a story about a mom and her son who had PDD. Unbelievably, I am a mom with a 14 year old son with PDD. What a delight to relate to this story and to have my emotions expressed so eloquently on paper! As soon as the tears dry from the pages, I will share this book with everyone!
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Summary: Slant is an extended poem
Review: What worries me about SLANT is that someone will shelve it in the "Parenting" section, and another will pick it up and skim it in Evelyn Wood fashion and miss what this work supremely is: an extended poem, sublime literature that needs no utilitarian end to justify its existence. There is no danger of the converse, at least. The seeker of a more pragmatic ilk will be edified on the subject of Pervasive Development Disorder (which seems like a label waiting for illumination); but let him be prepared to have his paradigms imploded. The author has collapsed the walls that artificially compartmentalized science and life, melding two forms of writing and enhancing both in the bargain; the dialogue on mental conundrums will proceed differently hereafter. When all is said and done, at the end of the road, at the end of a family fortune poured into the whistles and bells of specialized schools, we are brought back to 2000 year old truths: "Love is kind, love is patient, love is not rude, love is not easily angered," ... love waits for a little boy to finish his sentence. The meaning is in the journey as much as in the destination in this series of sterling essays that begin and end with dance, "in the pulse of song." Read for the rhythms, not for the point. Expect to be instructed, but don't dwell there. Read for the humor. Read for the skyscapes, for Pete's sake, that Kephart evokes without peer. If a Cuban cigar is a "nicotine delivery system" and a '69 Dom Perignon a conveyor of alcohol, then SLANT is a book about autistm-related disorders. But you will never convince a connoisseur. Better to give yourself over to the fortuitous confluence of streams that comes not often, when subject and artist and nature itself conspire to produce a work that resists categories even as it affirms life in all its surprising variegation.
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Summary: If you love great writing, you'll love this book...
Review: While Beth Kephart writes of the journey she took with her son, and husband, she is a poet at heart. The book is beautifully written and crafted. Yes, it's a story that should give hope to parents with children who need more, perhaps, than other children, but it's also a story of love and devotion, and the journey of a mother who's also a writer. When I began it, I worried it would depress me. Anything but. A lovely, lovely book.
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Summary: An inspiring book for parents of children with "differences"
Review: While this book is the story of a little boy who was diagnosed with pervasive developmental delay, I believe it will be of interest to parents of children with a variety of behavioral or emotional issues. The author aptly describes her journey as a parent from the early denial of her child's "differences" through the confusion of the testing process, the trauma of the "official" diagnosis and the subsequent exhaustive pursuit of an appropriate school setting. The story is inspirational not just in terms of this particular child's progress but with respect to the author's ability to accept the professional advice that she finds valuable while rejecting that she does not and acting instead on instinct (and love). Would that our responses to our children could be always shaped by such intelligence and love!
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Summary: Shedding Some Light on Autism
Review: With infinite grace and gentleness, Beth Kephart takes us into the world of a family with an autistic child. She guides us through the stages of grieving and awareness that she and her husband experience as they begin to recognize that their son, Jeremy, lives in a world that is not like that of his peers. Rather than looking for a "cure" for Jeremy's exceptional behaviors, Kephart searches for those situations and strategies that will maximize his gifts while shaping his weaknesses to help him function within society's norms. While searching for the best instructional setting for her son, Beth Kephart instructs us in the ways that love and persistence work together to develop teaching strategies that work. This book is valuable for anyone who works with children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders. It is also a beautiful story of the possibilities that reveal themselves when we refuse to bow to adversity.
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