Okay, so they're not exactly bodice-rippers. No one will mistake them for the latest glossy-covered mass-market paperback best-sellers. There's nothing mindless about them. And since you may want to save them for reference or inspiration, you'll want to be careful about handling them with sunblock-coated fingertips. But if you're a parent who usually reads scholarly disability tomes intended for professionals, or how-to books on tackling behavioral or developmental challenges, or self-help books full of ambitious plans and stern suggestions for strengthening your child and family, these special-needs memoirs -- written by parents, siblings, professionals, and people with special needs -- will be a walk in the park. Most offer enough love to shame a romance novelist, mysteries as good as anything by Grafton or Parker, inspiration sufficient to fill a library of Chicken Soup books, plus tragedy and triumph of Oprah-Book-Club-like proportions. Lest you feel guilty for putting those more serious books aside, they'll also teach you a thing or two about the disabilities they deal with. Toss a couple in your beach bag or carry-on for some summer reading that will stay with you long after the sunburn fades.
Will's Choice: A Suicidal Teen, a Desperate Mother, and a Chronicle of Recovery
by Gail Griffith
Why would a boy with so much going for him try to end it all? His frantic mother tries to find the clues.
Elijah's Cup: A Family's Journey into the Community and Culture of High-Functioning Autism and Asperger's Syndrome
by Valerie Paradiz
One mom's journey from despair to acceptance to advocacy for her autistic son.
A Smile as Big as the Moon: A Teacher, His Class, and Their Unforgettable Journey
by Mike Kersjes with Joe Layden
If this stellar story of a special-education teacher inspiring his students to reach for the stars isn't being made into a Disney movie yet, it should be.
Little People: Learning to See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes
by Dan Kennedy
A dad does some research into dwarfism to figure out his daughter's place in the world, and his place in her life.
An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales
by Oliver Sacks
Neurologist Sacks tells the tales of a child artist with autism, a surgeon with Tourette's, and autistic author Temple Grandin, among others. One of the essays, about a blind man regaining his sight with mixed emotions, was made into the movie romance "At First Sight."
Some Kind of Genius: The Extraordinary Journey of Musical Savant Tony DeBlois
by Janice DeBlois and Antonia Felix
Hard times and amazing gifts mark the story of Tony and his mother, Janice, told with a breadth of biographical detail usually reserved for celebrity tell-alls.
What It Takes to Pull Me Through: Why Teenagers Get in Trouble and How Four of Them Got Out
by David L. Marcus
Teens in behavioral boot camp. Will they get better? Will they get worse? Will their parents' insurance keep paying for all of this?
Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism
by Paul Collins
As young Morgan's parents realize that the things they find quirky and endearing about their son are seen as warning signs and symptoms by professionals, his dad looks into the history of autism and finds some interesting characters.
The Power of the Powerless: A Brother's Legacy of Love
by Christopher de Vinck
A sibling speaks, with deep love and admiration, about his severely disabled brother and his parents' ardent, uncomplaining care for him.
The Ride Together: A Brother and Sister's Memoir of Autism in the Family
by Paul Karasik and Judy Karasik
More siblings heard from, this time in a unique memoir that alternates between text and comics.
Send in the Idiots: Stories from the Other Side of Autism
by Kamran Nazeer
This is the book that started my summer off, an autistic man's revisiting of classmates from an early childhood autism class. An engaging read, it's fascinating both for the stories it tells and for its first-person view of autistic traits and eccentricities.
To the Left of Inspiration: Adventures in Living with Disabilities
by Katherine Schneider
This "honest, funny book about living with disabilities," by a woman who has been blind since birth but seems to have a pretty well-developed sense of humor, is not only a lot of fun to read, it has another thing I like in a "beach read": It's slender, with short chapters.
