Edited by Kathryn Lynard Soper; 337 pages. Subtitle: How People With Down Syndrome Enrich the World.
The first edition of Gifts, published in 2007, had the subtitle, "Mothers Reflect on How Children with Down Syndrome Enrich Their Lives." This second edition broadens that to fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents, aunts and uncles, family and friends and teachers and anybody who's life has been touched by a person with Down syndrome. If you're looking for positive, hopeful stories about Down Syndrome, you'll find them here in abundance.
- Book does a great job of counteracting negative stereotypes of Down syndrome.
- Should be given to any family getting a DS diagnosis, to contradict doctors' dire warnings.
- Essays are well-written and enjoyable.
- Great to see photo of essay writers and their loved ones with each essay.
- With so many special-needs books focused on struggle, it's nice to get some celebration.
- At 375 pages and 76 stories, this is an awful lot of inspiration to absorb.
- Many of the stories are essentially the same; pruning would have made the collection stronger.
- Since the first volume was all mother stories, might have been nice to leave them out here.
- Surely not every single person with Down syndrome is a delight and an inspiration.
- Part One: The Gift of Acceptance
- Part Two: The Gift of Awareness
- Part Three: The Gift of Friendship
- Part Four: The Gift of Courage
- Part Five: The Gift of Joy
In the introduction to Gifts 2, editor Kathryn Lynard Soper tells of being at a conference and having a mom in the audience stand up, show her baby with Down syndrome, and declare that, had it not been for the original Gifts, this beautiful child would never have been born. It's hard to argue with that as an endorsement for the original -- which featured essays by mothers about their children with Down syndrome -- or this sequel, which includes friends and family members in the mix. With more and more couples receiving a Down syndrome diagnosis early in a pregnancy and getting a woefully behind-the-times prognosis from their doctor, collections like these that shout out the positive potential for people with DS can be literally lifesaving.
If you're eager for good news about Down syndrome, Gifts 2 is a good book to browse through, pick out essays that speak to you, look at the joyous faces of people with Down syndrome and their loved ones, and find hope. This is a long book with a lot of essays, many of them telling essentially the same story of doubt and fear over a diagnosis, struggle with early medical crises, and eventual embrace of the many gifts children with Down syndrome have to offer. I think it's possible that the collection could have been a little tighter, with fewer similar stories and more emphasis on family members and friends, but honestly, I can't tell you which ones I would edit out. For those it will most help, there's probably something to say for having the widest variety possible, because you never know which story will make the difference.
