New Novel Centers on Child With Nonverbal Learning Disabilities
What makes a perfect parent? What makes a parent perfect for a particular child? And how do we go on when everything in our lives is as far from perfect as it can possibly get? Those are some of the questions that run through Inside Out Girl (compare prices), a new novel that uses the extreme behaviors of a child with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities as something of a metaphor for the obsessions and idiosyncrasies and misunderstandings that can cause chaos in any family.
Olivia is the girl of the title, prone to wearing clothing inside-out in a way that's sure to attract the attention of school bullies. Her widowed father, Len, is barely holding on, full of love for his daughter but out of energy and baby-sitting help. Rachel, a divorcee who meets them by the side of the road one flat-tire day, feels like she's got things figured out as the editor of Perfect Parent magazine and the mother of a twelve- and fourteen-year-old she's convinced herself she knows better than they know themselves. But those kids have their own ideas of what's perfect for them; and as Rachel gets close to Len and Olivia, a long-buried secret from her own past challenges her notions of perfection.
Author Tish Cohen has gathered together in this fast-moving novel a lot of painful touchstones for parents of children with special needs. If you worry about your child disappearing, or finding someone to care for her if something should happen to you, or discovering that she's been abused by mean kids, or just dealing with the strong emotions and strange obsessions that pop out at the worst time, you'll be on the edge of your seat at some of the plot developments here. Though Olivia's diagnosis is NLD and some attention is given to that, there's certainly enough points of comparison that parents of children with developmental disabilities of any sort will find something that resonates.
I ripped through this book in a couple of days on a recent vacation, and really enjoyed it. If you're looking for something to add to your pile of special-needs beach reads, I'd recommend it. And there's not much more than I can say about it without spoiling the plot, but if you do read it, meet me in the forum and we can discuss.
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Read more: Special Needs News | Harried Parent's Book Club | Before You Buy a Parenting Book
Cover image courtesy of Harper Perennial
I was very interested to come across ‘inside Out Girl.’ I was just doing an internet trawl to find novels featuring non-verbal people with learning disabilities because I have just published my own- ‘Tasting the Wind.’
‘Tasting the Wind’ deals with what happens when to people with profound disabilities witness a murder but are unable to communicate what they have seen. From the review it lookis like ‘Inside Out Girl’ my sort of thing.