Birds of a Feather

Rating:
Summary: Informative and hopeful
Review: An excellent source for information about Down syndrome and an entertaining story at the same time. The story deals with areas of adjustment often left unaddressed in discussing people with disabilities.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, enlightening, and educational
Review: It was indeed a pleasure to read Dr. Balter's novel. This is a book that is unusual in its ability to hold the reader's attention, and, at the same time, provide a tremendous amount of information about mental retardation and autism. It goes a long way toward correcting a lot of the erroneous information and stereotypes still associated with these problems. Parents and educators of children and adolescents with special needs will find this book particularly interesting and valuable.

Rating:
Summary: Informative, but not realistic
Review: This book starts out by touching on many of the topics faced by families who have children with disabilities. It addresses old myths about institutionalization and presents a much more encouraging view of the future for children with special needs. However, the book then takes on a mythical, almost Disney-like point of view, as almost everyone in the book is very wealthy, and a girl with severe autism is "cured" by a very traumatic incident. I'm not sure of the intended audience for the book, but it does need a parental warning that it contains graphic descriptions of violence, discussions of sexual activity and suicide.