Special-Needs Novel on My Daughter's Reading List
This week's Harried Parent's Book Club review, of the expert's guide Getting the Best for Your Child With Autism, is posted now in the weekly book-club spotlight spot on the lower left side of my homepage. It's a book that put me in the unsettling position of agreeing with everything the author said, and yet feeling really ticked off at her.
Also unsettling me this week is the news that my daughter will be reading the Jodi Picoult novel My Sister's Keeper (compare prices) in her 11th-grade resource-room English class. The teacher gave me that information on back-to-school night, along with my own copy of the book. But I didn't really sit down and start to read it to my daughter until this weekend, and a few things are now clear: 1) A lot of it is going over her head; 2) A lot of it is going to upset me; and 3) This is likely to be one of those novels with a teen as the main character that makes parents look bad.
Maybe it's more complex than that, but not in the first 25 pages. Which leads me to ask: Anybody out there read this one? Anybody at all, but in particular, anybody with a child with cancer? For the latter, did you find the novel moving? maddening? both? Anything I should be wary of as I wend my way through this with my reluctant reader? I'm really not looking forward to explaining complex emotional and ethical decisions to a girl who sees the world in black and white. Especially if it's something that gets me all worked up.
Of course, the assignment has already resulted in a vocabulary sentence of "I would give my brother my kidney." Which is, you know, good to know.
Read more: Special Needs News | Site of the Day | Book Review: "Parenting Children With Health Issues"
Cover image courtesy of Simon & Schuster
Wow. I read My Sister’s Keeper last year, and found many of the things challenging, confronting and difficult – although I guess I was reading it from the parent’s perspective rather than the teen’s perspective.
I think it will have a lot in it that will speak to teens (mostly about rights and responsibilities, and the imposition of another’s will). As a parent, it left me with a lot of ‘would I?’ questions – and I’m very grateful that I haven’t had to answer them in more than the abstract. There was lots in it that I loathed, and hope against hope that that isn’t the kind of mother I could become.
I read the book last year also, and I believe you will be pleasantly surprised at opportunity for yourself and your daughter to move beyond the black and white world she now finds herself. It is a book that will make you realize no decision is always right or always wrong, and no intention is always right or always wrong. The book will make you angry, and that’s okay. I think you and your daughter may have the opportunity for some frank discussions.
I read this (and enjoyed the plots twists) when my kids were preschool age – it is a tough read but with kids at that age it did not trouble me greatly. I did recommend it to an acquaintance, not knowing she had a son ill with leukemia. She, naturally, found it to be an EXTREMELY difficult read, but said the medical information was all factually correct and actually presented multiple viewpoints about childrens’ illnesses very well. I would recommend this book to adults – not sure if I would think an 11th grader would be ready for the many layers it presents.
PS A better 11th grade book would be “Rules” by Cynthia Lord – a fantastic book written from the perspective of a teenage girl who has a little brother with autism.