George & Sam
Two Boys, One Family, and Autism
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
For the parents, families, and friends of the 1 in 250 autistic children born annually in the United States, George and Sam provides a unique look into the life of the autistic child.
Charlotte Moore has three children, George, Sam, and Jake. George and Sam are autistic. George and Sam takes the reader from the births of each of the two boys, along the painstaking path to diagnosis, interventions, schooling and more. She writes powerfully about her family and her sons, and allows readers to see the boys behind the label of autism. Their often puzzling behavior, unusual food aversions, and the different ways that autism effects George and Sam lend deeper insight into this confounding disorder.
George and Sam emerge from her narrative as distinct, wonderful, and at times frustrating children who both are autistic through and through. Moore does not feel the need to search for cause or cure, but simply to find the best ways to help her sons. She conveys to readers what autism is and isn't, what therapies have worked and what hasn't been effective, and paints a moving, memorable portrait life with her boys.
Charlotte Moore is a writer and journalist who lives in Sussex, England with her three sons. She is the author of four novels and three children's book. For two years she wrote a highly acclaimed column in the Guardian called "Mind the Gap" about life with George and Sam. She is a contributor to many publications.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As Moore astutely points out, "Giving birth to an autistic child doesn't make you an instant expert on the subject." Moore, a British journalist, doesn't claim to be an expert, but as the mother of George and Sam, two autistic boys (she has a third nonautistic son as well), Moore is able to provide a perceptive look into the habits and, to a certain extent, the minds of her sons. "A common belief among people not deeply familiar with autism," she writes, "is that there is a normal child trapped inside, struggling to get out. That's a false belief.... Sam has no 'normal' core." Those casually visiting the world of autism might be frustrated by Moore's detached accounting: she merely hints at her own feelings, doesn't discuss her nonautistic son and skims over her split from the boys' father. But for anyone dealing with an autistic loved one, the details are chilling and insightful. Less memoir than road map, the book lays out every aspect of her children's lives, such as their inability to integrate at school, their eating and sleeping habits, their stims ("self-stimulation," the autistic behavior that can soothe or calm) and the structures of their day. She shies away from nothing. With fact, theory and her own take on matters, Moore's book will reassure others in her position that they are not alone in their struggles.
