Customer Reviews

A Different Kind of Perfect: Writings by Parents on Raising a Child with Special Needs

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I read this book while expecting a child with special needs. It helped explain some of what I was going through. The grieving, the denial, etc. I liked the format of personal experiences combined with the professional essays. Both were helpful. Some of the thoughts were extremely helpful, including the title, which says that my child is a different kind of perfect.

I really wanted to like this book a lot, as I have two children with special needs and I am always wanting to read parent accounts of how they made it through the days and years with their children. This is a very well meant book, but I think there should have been more editing done before it was published. It had the feel of just taking anything that was submitted and including it in the book. This results in a collection of accounts that are vastly different in style and material. Some are very vague and try to be inspirational, a "Welcome to Holland" type of writing. Others are very specific and medical. Some are pretty much just angry rants, like the woman whose husband sounds unbelievably in denial and unhelpful, some are very upbeat. Of course it's true that everyone reacts to parenting a special needs child differently, but what also varies widely is the material---some essays never say what the special need of the child is, some include tiny details but leave bigger questions hanging, and some are just oddly written, like little short stories that are trying too hard to be literary.

I guess I would like a book that's more specific---what special need does each child have, how did the parents react to the news the child had that need, what were the early years like, where does the child go to school, how do the siblings get along...all of which were addressed a little here and there in this book.

I thank the authors and editors for trying, though. I am sure that some people will find inspiration here.