A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage - Hardcover

Kephart, Beth

4.04

294 ratings by Goodreads

9781574901931: A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1574901931 ISBN 13: 9781574901931

Publisher: Thomas t Beeler, 1999

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

For Beth Kephart's son, the diagnosis was "pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified" - a broad spectrum of difficulties, including autistic features. As the author and her husband discover, all that label really means is that their son Jeremy is "different in a million wonderful ways, and also different in ways that need our help."

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

The hardest part of being a parent is the certain knowledge that there are some things you can't control. When Beth Kephart's son Jeremy was labeled with the unsettlingly vague diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorder (a behavioral disorder related to autism) in the fall of 1991, there were no definitive medical answers, no guidebooks to Jeremy's inner world, no maps to help Jeremy's mom and dad lead their boy back into the land of relatively uncomplicated childhood. Jeremy was a beautiful child who screamed whenever strangers came near him and spent long hours every day obsessively rearranging his toy cars into indecipherable patterns. He was an early talker, but by the time of his diagnosis Jeremy's speech had degenerated into mindless parroting--a condition known as echolalia. Jeremy's triumph over his disability and his journey to reintegration is the primary story of this beautifully written book, Kephart's first.

The other story, the more universal story, is the haunting account of the symbiosis between mother and child, which grows particularly intense when a child feels pain from which his mother cannot shield him. Kephart's fears that her own maternal failings are somehow implicated in Jeremy's problem stand out as the emotional core of this memoir. Her faith in her son, perseverance, and eventual acceptance of herself play as important a role in his healing process as any course of therapy--and her unflinching descriptions of her own healing are what make A Slant of Sun such a stunning debut. --Patrizia DiLucchio

From the Publisher:

"A Slant of Sun" is a finalist for the 1998 National Book Award for Nonfiction.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.