On a personal level, I can relate to this as a child who had “special needs.” I applaud this family for not automatically following accepted wisdom at the time. If I’d been born in the 40’s, institutionalization would very likely have been what was suggested for me, as well, at least for my education. I was a premature baby, and up until the 1940’s, most very premature babies simply didn’t survive. Beginning around that time, medical advances began allowing the survival of many preterm infants who would have died previously. One of the consequences of this was that many of these babies survived, but were blind. This is now called retinopathy of prematurity.

Back then, figuring out what to do with these children when they reached school age was a problem and state institutions for the blind began to become a more and more common option. Usually, these blind children would be sent to live at schools specially able to address their unique learning needs. As was mentioned in this review, there were not laws about the rights of families with kids with special education needs until much later (70’s, I believe). That’s when I was born.

Fortunately for me, by the time I was scheduled to begin kindergarten, mainstreaming was more common. I went to public schools and lived with my family. This is not the best choice for every family, and schools for the blind still have their place, but I’m glad to have had a mainstream experience. This meant that Mom had to go to bat for me, my rights, and making sure I received appropriate services on various occasions. There were issues with a few teachers and some social difficulties, as well. I also know having me for an older sister meant that my younger sister had to probably deal with some awkwardness, like questions from her friends or the stares I would get in public. We have a solid relationship based on love and respect, though. Us being this close probably wouldn’t have happened if I’d been sent to a residential school and only been home for visits.

I appreciate books like this that share the honest perspectives of siblings of special needs children. I hope such books lead to greater sensitivity to these important issues and allow for a greater understanding of the experiences of these “nondisabled” siblings. There’s a lot we can learn from their experiences.

Carmella Broome, Licensed Professional Counselor
Author of Carmella’s Quest: Taking On College Sight Unseen (Red Letter Press 2009)
Columbia, SC

I was just thinking yesterday about how many of the books I read were written by American or English authors and are set in cities that I have never been to. I’m going to make a special effort to read more Aussie writers. Maybe I will review some and introduce some Australian locales to the book blog reading public!

I’m reading Annie’s Ghosts now and it’s got a different tone to it. It’s interesting and good!