Disabilities Books

So glad this type of book, filled with very helpful information and insight, has been published. Can't wait until Craig writes a book for each state and then tackles Europe. Sent an autographed copy to a good friend, a double amputee who truly appreciates the author's ability to advise most accurately.

"Congratulations to Andy Jehn and Craig Kennedy for having the foresight and creativity to publish a much needed resource for the State of Colorado. This publication will draw attention to the programs that already exist to make the Rockies accessible and inspire others to focus on breaking down barriers for the disabled. Thank you."

Amanda Boxtel is the paraplegic Co-founder and Director of Special Projects for Challenge Aspen, an all-seasons non-profit adaptive recreation provider for Aspen Mountain and the surrounding area. Formed in 1995, it has become one of the premier adaptive outfits in the country for people with disabilities.

"Written from the heart, Craig Kennedy and Andrea Jehn have managed to paint a vivid picture of adaptive programs at Colorado Ski Resorts. Descriptions are filled with specifics and "how to" tips that will get you where you need to go. It's more than just the usual maps, websites, phone numbers and lists. Their words make you want to become part of the ambiance, the experience and the fun of winter recreation. This book is a must have for anyone with special needs!"

Johanna Hall, after many years of working with and running the ski school at Vail Mountain in Colorado, has moved to Steamboat to take over as manager of the Steamboat Ski & Snowboard School. She has been an avid outdoor enthusiast and skier her entire life.

"As our communities begin to make accommodation for those who can benefit from program and facility adaptation and expansion, it becomes increasingly important to publish this vital information to those who would benefit from it. Information contained in Access Anything: Colorado has been carefully researched and validated by the authors in such a way to be presented in a realistic and practical fashion. There is thoroughness to the material, which is of value to most anyone of any level of disability. No literature can be the end all resource form any single person with a disability. This resource guide does present information in a way the reader can make an appropriate distinction as to whether or not any given subject resource within the contents would merit further exploration. This is an excellent effort to make information of value known to persons who would benefit from consideration for accommodation."

Sam Andrews has been a Craig Hospital employee as director of Therapeutic Recreation and Volunteer Services for many years, specializing in spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation. Craig Hospital is one of the leading spinal chord and brain injury rehabilitation centers in the country.

"Craig and Andy have really done their "away from" homework in creating this bible for the wheelchair traveler. Thanks you for this great guide."

Steve Ackerman is a long-time resident of Colorado, a National spokesman for Freedom Ryder Handcycles, and owner of a medical supply company for people with disabilities.

For parents interested in or beginning the adoption process, this book answers questions you would never have known to ask while clarifying the mysteries of the adoption system. For parents like me who have finalized two adoptions, it informs me of a wealth of options that are (or should be) available to help me and my children and gives me the strength and courage to seek those options. Thank-you to Babb and Laws for providing what I believe will be used as a workbook of knowledge in implementing services for children. I sincerely hope every family and professional that works with "special needs" children will take the time to read this wonderful, informative book. These children are our future...and Babb & Laws give us the much needed information to help them on their journey! Again, many thanks and blessings to the authors, Eileen W.!!!

Love is not all a child needs to make an adoption work, and the authors show us this truth in their vast personal and professional experience in adopting special needs children. Prospective adoptive parents of special needs children, both domestic and international, will greatly benefit from the important information and insights into critical emotional, educational and criminal issues dealt with in this wonderful book. I heartily recommend it to everyone.
Gisela Gasper Fitzgerald, author of ADOPTION: An Open, Semi-Open or Closed Practice?

Adopting and Advocating for the Special Needs Child is well written, interesting and knows its audience (written in layman's terms). This book should be given to all parents of foster children who are considering adoption.

This book should be required reading for everyone considering "Special Needs" adoption. I recommend the book be read before you start the process. It's a wealth of current information. This book is written so well that you will enjoy reading it.

If you are going to read only one book on adopting children with special needs let this be the one. With their vast personal and professional experience in adopting special needs children, Babb and Law clearly explain the most important information and most critical emotional issues which pre-adoptive parents need to consider. My husband and I have adopted three special needs children. This book helped us understand how to advocate for ourselves as we moved through the process of adoption, how to advocate for the children both before and after the adoption and how to address some of the many complex emotional issues faced by a family which chooses to care for and love special needs children. My hearfelt thanks go out to Rita Law and Anne Babb for this wonderful gift of book.

Mr. Keyes exposes himself personally in this intimate autobiography. I was captured by his honesty, his sensitivity and his fluid writing style. I felt, as though I was a familiar friend and I gained and enormous appreciation for his dedication in writing "Flowers for Algernon". I look forward to more books by this gifted author. I hear his next will be science fiction / mystery.

What it takes to write one great book is a lifetime of preparation. It seems that every element of Daniel Keyes' life, up to the writing of Flowers for Algernon, was gearing toward that one great book. Every piece of Charlie's life, and every phrase spoken by his coworkers and the scientists who changed him came from Keyes' experience.

Half of this autobiography is the set-up to his great novel, the one work that would define his life. The other half is the aftermath. Thrust into fame and the machine that profits off other's works, Keyes' found himself tossed to and fro.

A writer wants to write, not to examine contracts and make decisions about rights. A writer wants to create and then to own his creations, not to see what came from his mind as property to be arbitrated. Daniel Keyes' found himself in the fortunate position of creating a work of beauty and then wrestling with ownership of that beauty for many years afterward.

What I loved about this autobiography is the journey which prepared him to write a great novel - showing the work and creativity and effort that goes into an instance of genius. What I also loved was the life's lessons learned that he put down on paper so that another person might have an easier journey.

- CV Rick

This book is about one retarded guy named Charlie Gordon. Thisbook is very interesting because this book is written as a real diaryof Charlie. Very first part of book... Charlie's grammars and spellings are all wrong. After Charlie gets operation, Charlie is getting smarter and his writing skills are getting better. End of this book, Charlie is turn into retarded man again. This book shows Charlie's efforts to get smarter, Charlie's lonesome life, and his emotional changes. I felt sorry about Charlie when I read last part of the book. This book is extraordinary and very cool.

In Algernon, Charlie And I: A Writer's Journey, Daniel Keys reveals the life experiences behind his creation of the character Charlie Gordon, a young man whose quest for intelligence and knowledge parallels that of the mouse, Algernon, in his acclaimed novelette "Flowers for Algernon" (which has been optioned and is in production for a CBS made-for-tv movie. Both the novelette version, and the novel that followed, have been widely translated and remain part of many school and college literature course curriculums. Algernon, Charlie And I includes the author's original short novelette version and is a "must" for all Keys fans.

The main charm of "Algernon, Charlie and I" is the revealed episodes behind "Flowers for Algernon", which make you understand (at least partly) why "Flowers's for Algernon", the author's acclaimed novel, is so increadibly compelling and moving.

By reading this book, you will find that the "Flowers for Algernon" is not a product of pure fantasy, but is based on so actual facts, emotions and feelings, that the author had been observing and experiencing himself. Charlie's desire to become smart comes from the author's experience while working with mentally retarded children, who wanted to become smart. Charlie's feeling toward the professor, while becoming smarter than the professor who created him, comes from the author's experience of suddently over-growing his parents, immigrants who did not speak English fluently.

After reading this book, you will realise that it is the author's sensitivity, warmness toward other people and his candidness about his own feeling what make his extraordinary novel so warm and moving. In the end, "Flowers for Algernon" is not about this poor guy who has gone through extraordinary experience, but about all of us.

Having been bullied most of my life in and out of school I just learned to live with it. It was only when, like the author, I was diagnosed in adulthood with AS that the pieces of my life began to come together. However one thing still troubled me, why was I subjected to such harsh treatment? That was up until I read this book.

This book, written in a style of a informative manual for professionals such as teachers, clearly spells out why people on the spectrum are subjected to bullying and harassment on a daily basis in the torturous prison that is our schools. The author has dedicated a chapter to some of his own experiences and uses these and the stories of others on the spectrum to plainly illustrate his points. However unlike some other books on the subject that I have read he also backs up these points with numerous references to other studies, books and other AS authorities.

I am not saying that this book is without its flaws. For one many of the strategies suggested for use by the teachers and the victims themselves will have in one form or other been tried and have often failed due in part to the fact that some bullies actively look for a chink in the armour, once it is found the whole cycle begins again. Also the book is very thin for the subject matter and while this is good in stopping the reader getting bored it does very little when you are trying to find really good in-depth material on the subject.

Having said that, this book gives a rock solid foundation for parents, victims and teachers to build on and create a better strategy for dealing with bullying of people on the spectrum and those who are not. Also this book puts a strong emphasis on engaging bystanders, turning them from innocent bystanders into a dynamic force to help stamp out bullying when it starts instead of when it has taken root. As it says, Bullying does not happen in a vacuum.

If you are looking for a good book about bullying on the spectrum, this guy knows his stuff.

I have asperber's syndrome and I learned this years after I graduated from highschool. I knew that I was very much bullied all through high school and grade school. I suggest that people read this book and think what is happening with the victems of bullies. Many of of them are aspies who do no know it.

Again, I said this is recomend for every one.

As a parent dealing with a fairly new diagnosis, this book went beyond the title. Finally Asperger's has been explained in a way that allows me to grasp what it is like for my son. I also discovered how even we as adoring parents have unintentionally bullied him. This is a crucial read for parents, teachers and school administration. I strongly recommend it!

This book delivers insight and hope to children being victimized and their families. When I counsel children and adults who have been bullied, I am invariably struck by the deep wounds that they carry through life. The fear and trembling lives on, along with the sadness and the pain that are more than just memories that people get over. Nick Dubin speaks with passion in a singular voice as an adult who has Asperger's and as a professional who helps the reader get the big picture. Parents, teachers, and professionals will understand why do bullies do what they do, why people stand by, and what to do about it.

--Robert A. Naseef, Ph.D., author of Special Children, Challenged Parents and co-editor Voices from the Spectrum.

Voices from the Spectrum: Parents, Grandparents, Siblings, People With Autism, And Professionals Share Their Wisdom

Bullying (which includes both verbal and physical harassment) is an extremely serious problem in our schools today. A large percentage of adolescent and teenage suicides are directly and primarily attributable to bullying. Most of the widely reported school shootings were also at least partly acts of revenge against bullying. Unfortunately, most parents and school administrators simply do not understand the scope of the problem. This is largely due to the perception that teasing and bullying are a "normal part of growing up." All too often, the problem is dismissed by well-meaning school administrators that remember being victims of some teasing and bullying in their own childhoods and who think that the victims should just "get over it".

While it is true that everyone experiences a certain amount of bullying, there are many children in our schools for whom bullying is not just an occasional incident to be shrugged off. For most students with Asperger syndrome, bullying is pervasive, constant, and inescapable. They usually lack the pragmatic language skills to effectively use "comebacks" to respond to teasing, they lack the motor skills to fight back if the harassment turns physical, and they usually have few (if any) friends available to provide emotional support afterwards. Add to that the fact that persons with autism have a biologically based difficulty in dealing with frustration and you have a recipe for disaster.

Nick Dubin shows a rare understanding of the severity and nature of the problem from the standpoint of a former victim. He does a masterful job of explaining why persons with Asperger syndrome (and other forms of autism) are extremely vulnerable to bullying. He also offers a wealth of practical suggestions to combat this problem in our schools. If we, as a society, claim to value diversity, how can we turn our backs on our own children that are harassed daily in our schools for no reason other than the fact that they are different?

Why do we expect a 12 year old child with autism to endure daily harassment that is often far worse than that which would be grounds for a very large lawsuit if it happened to a 30 year old adult in the workplace?

Every school administrator, teacher, and parent needs to read this book. Dubin masterfully shows why the problem is both serious and solvable -- if only parents and school officials will pay attention.

This book was perfect for my 8yr old daughter. My son is 10yrs and has Asperger Syndrome so this book helped my daughter out tremendously with the millions of questions she has been asking. My daughter has the option of reading it on her own (which she does sometimes) and also we read it together. We are very pleased with this book.

This is a nice book to use to explain to "typical" kids what is my son's situation. It has examples that speaks to their age. Even without sitting there and reading the actual books to kids, I use the ideas to speak to friends' kids and others.
Very good.

I loved reading this book with my nine-year-old. She really got a better insight into her sisters behavior. It gave us a starting point for discussion.

I am 10 and I have a 12 year old sister who has Aspergers Syndrome. My mom and dad have been trying to help me understand it for years. My sister always seems to get away with a lot of stuff and she embarrasses me a lot. I like this book because it really explains how I feel. I get annoyed just like Emily and then I feel guilty because my sister has autism and can't help what she is doing. This book let me know that it is OK to get annoyed and for some reason that makes me less annoyed with my sister. I don't know why but it does. Emily says that she feels like the big sister and that is exactly how I feel! I don't like worrying about my sister so I don't like it when we do the same activities. This made my mom understand a little better too. I really recommend this book because it is really true. I haven't really liked any of the other books my mom got me on autism because they weren't really about how I felt but this one is great.

This is a sterling work that I highly endorse. This is an invaluable work for people who have siblings with autism; for families; for educators and other interested persons.

Emily's older brother Daniel has autism. She naturally wants to know why she cannot communicate with him consistently and what prompts him to behave and respond as he does. Emily's parents acknowledge Emily's anger, concern and other feelings and allow her to explore. I like the conversations they had. I also like the way Daniel is accepted and how some of his more outlandish behavior is explained and not condoned. Reasonable expectations are set for Daniel, always with the hope of contant, continued improvement.

The dynamics among this family are what makes this book so strong. It is a book that will resonate in one's mind long after finishing the last page.

I think this is an excellent book. It gives alot of good ideas on how to take daily or special events to let your child transition better and communicate about these events. It is for high functioning kids which the book does state, but I found myself trying to make the schedules or the trip to the store more my own so I think lower functioning kids could benefit. The reason why I gave it 4 stars is that the pictures are not colored and the mini idea schedules: going to the store and getting ready for bed will not be necessarily the same order you have your kids do it, so you will have to change it anyway. It did give me a good start on some things to help with communication. It's an easy read!

I bought this book before my son was diagnosed. We thought that perhaps he was on the Autism Spectrum. It was such a blessing to find practical, easy to use ideas. He was only 2 1/2 at the time, but there was plenty for me to use. Soon after my son was diagnosed as having Sensory Integration Dysfunction. I still love the book and use many of the ideas to break into his world. It gives hope and encouragement to find the little things that help my son break out of his world and into ours. I have never handed out my modified version of the "Don't Look At Me That Way" cards, but I feel empowered just carrying them around. I am grateful for all of the strategies and games and encouragement this book offers.

We were fortunate to get to know Phil Abrams personally. He provided therapy for our daughter (and lots of laughs for us). Phil's insight and use of humor helped our child join our world, as well as to help us see that all is not so bad. I'm happy to know that he is sharing his abilities and insights with every parent who wants them. They were a great blessing to us.

The Autistic Spectrum Parents' Daily Helper is a pracitical, wonderful, and loving guide and workbook for parents guiding their children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder through daily tasks and enriched and empowered lives.

This workbook is simple, attractive, and engaging. It is full of love and good humor - The writers reach out to parents facing the, at times, daunting task of helping their children learn the necessary skills, like getting dressed, telling time, and navigating daily schedules, that will help lead them to independent lives and communicative relationships within the range of their own abilities.

There are loads of strategies, games, and visual aids in this workbook. Many of the sheets are designed to be torn out or cut up so you can adapt them to your own or your child's specific needs. There are plenty of games and fun ways to attack simple tasks.

What struck me most of all was the palpable sense of love and fun that permeated this workbook. It is a rare and fine example of how simple and good it is to reach out to those you love and how powerful it is when you empower your children to order their own reality.

WOW..... how many self help books can you relate to ,and implement from the first page to the last? This was absolutly the case with The Autistic Spectrum Parents' Daily Helper.
As a parent of an autistic child, not only did I think the ideas in the book were suberb, but it gave me comfort in realizing that I am not alone.
This book gives parents great ideas and help in making everyday tasks that can be so challenging for parents and kids easier. I especially like the cards that you hand out to people who may be looking at you or your child in a funny way.
I highly recommend this book to parents who are just starting out on this journey, or have been involved for a while. You will all walk away with some great practical information.

Item arrived in just a few days. I was pleased with the condition.

I never really liked poetry. No, let me correct that. I never understood poetry. Blue Peninsula is an alluring work about poetry that bridges the gap. Madge McKeithen's book is an extraordinary, powerful journey through the author's struggle to cope with her son Ike's undiagnosed, degenerative condition. Throughout the terrible ordeal of Ike's illness, Ms. Mckeithen found solace in the words of others. Poetry became her confidant, her guide, her therapist through an overwhelming labyrinth of painful tests, pointless doctor visits, and inaccurate diagnoses - none of which provided the medical help she so desperately wanted for her son.
Gorgeously written in a style that is almost poetic on its own, the chapters of Blue Peninsula are divided into the various issues brought on by Ike's illness: the grief, the frustration, the unbearable anguish a parent endures when she is impotent to stop her child's awful suffering. Most chapters begin with a poem - a poem that carries the reader into the thinking heart of the author. There, through the words of the poets, Ms. Mckeithen discovers another way of perceiving the maddening worlds of sadness, anger, loss, powerlessness. In Blue Peninsula the reader begins to realize that poems are not the secret property of an "intelligensia." Poems are what the poets intended: insights into ourselves and our worlds - they are the shared understandings of our very human lives. Whether the reader identifies with the awareness that comes to Ms. McKeithen through poetry, or whether the reader finds a new, personal wonder in poems, Madge McKeithen's Blue Peninsula is an extraordinary experience.

In this amazing book, Madge McKeithen not only uses the poetry she loves for her own comfort, but to help inform her own understanding of a life that has broken off from the one she intended to live. Her son, Ike, is ill. No one knows what to call the illness, no one can predict its duration nor offer treatment. A mother alone in the wilderness of emotions and yet stuck in the daily grind of obligations, work, and relationships in the face of the dreadful, terrifying illness of her child.

McKeithen's book is astounding and courageous, beautiful and fresh.

Blue Peninsula, its author Madge McKeithen says, "is not about resolution, but about connection." McKeithen turns to poetry to make some kind of sense of the chaos that has engulfed her world since her son Ike was diagnosed with a degenerative, but unnamed, illness nine years ago. The poems include favorites that I too might have chosen--Whitman's "A Noiseless Patient Spider" and Rilke's "Sunset"--as well as surprising choices that taught me deeper ways to think about the griefs and complexities of life--poems, for example, by Alan Michael Parker, Kenneth Koch, and Carl Phillips. One of the most moving, especially in the context of Ike's illness, is Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art."

But it's not just the poetry. It's McKeithen's honesty, her skill as a writer, and her determination to tell the story that had to be told--that's what makes this a book I couldn't put down until I read it all the way through.

Blue Peninsula is an intimate, thoughtful, and breathtakingly fierce book.
McKeithen faces down a subject that must pain her heart every day - her oldest son's illness - and finds balance and delight contemplating poetry by authors as diverse as Sharon Olds, D.H. Lawrence and e.e. cummings.

McKeithen writes that "poems... lend themselves to fragmentary reading and re-reading," and encourages readers to dip in and out of Blue Peninsula that same way. I couldn't help but read the book straight through. Blue Peninsula will stay with me as a compass for a very long time.

I cherish this book. I am the mother of a wonderful little boy with special needs who is also terminal. I could never put into words all my thoughts and feelings. Ms. Buck did that beautifully and with heart. I reread it often and share it with other parents needing the encouragement that she bestows with her wonderful writing. Thank you!

"The Child Who Never Grew," by Pearl S. Buck, is the true story of the struggle of the author after learning that her daughter Carol, born in 1920, was mentally handicapped. The 1992 Woodbine House edition contains a foreword by James Michener, an introduction by Martha M. Jablow, and an afterword by Janice C. Walsh, who was Pearl's daughter and Carol's's sister.

Jablow notes in her intro that "Child" first appeared as an article in "Ladies Home Journal" in 1950 and was shortly thereafter published in book form. Jablow notes that the book is "a landmark in the literature about disabilities." As such, I consider "Child" a fitting companion text to a book like Helen Keller's "The Story of My Life." Jablow notes that mental retardation "carried a shameful stigma" when Buck first had this story published; Jablow provides further useful historical context for the main text.

Buck writes very movingly of her heartache at the discovery of her child's plight. She documents her awareness of the stigma against people like Carol, and also tells of her search for an institution where Carol's special needs might be met. Buck passionately defends the humanity and worth of the mentally retarded, and tells what her experiences with Carol taught her: "I learned respect and reverence for every human mind. It was my child who taught me to understand so clearly that all people are equal in their humanity and that all have the same human rights."

Walsh's afterword continues the story of Carol. She fills in some of the very obvious gaps in Buck's story. Walsh's contribution to this book is very moving, and includes photos of Carol.

In addition to being a work of historical and sociological importance, I found "The Child Who Never Grew" to be a moving and very personal piece of American literature. For another good companion text, try William Styron's "Darkness Visible," in which the distinguished writer tells of his battle against clinical depression. Also, try "On the Way Home," by Laura Ingalls Wilder; this book has additional material by Laura's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, and like "The Child Who Never Grew" is thus a sort of mother-daughter literary collaboration.

This old book was first published in 1950 by Pearl Buck (1892-1973), a 1938 Nobel laureate, but originally drafted by her in the much earlier days. Her first daughter Carol was born as a LD child in 1920, due to a delivery accident in a remote village of China. The cause is now known as PKU, a disorder in phenylalanine metablism (and PKU can be fully cured now), but then nobody knew either cause or therapy. That was a beginning of this tragedy of both Carol and her mother Pearl. But that is not the whole story. Pearl's first husband, a scholar, kept ignoring his own LD child, and did not give any special finacial support to this daughter. So when Pearl, then just a house wife, realized that Carol had to be taken care of by the best special school for LD children in the United States for the rest of her own long life (till Carol's death in 1992), she started writing a novel on Chinese farmers, The Good Earth, hoping to earn some money as royality for the sake of Carol's life-long welfare. In 1932, to her great surprise, this book becames the world best seller, and even filmed in 1937 with a great success, and eventually awarded her the big prize the followig year. In other words, this LD child Carol transformed her mother's life and career so dramatically, in a better sense.

Having met so many other mothers who also have LD children, eventually after the end of WW II, Pearl decided to publish her true story on Carol, which turned out to be her first and sole real daughter, in order to share her own difficult experience with these mothers. Meanwhile she adopted several orphan children including Janice Walsh with her second husband Richard Walsh, a talented editor who published "The Good Earth" very successfully.

In the early days of Carol's youth, Pearl had a great difficulty in being willing to admit that Carol's brain had been permanentally damaged. One day, however, at a small hospital in the United States, an old German doctor privately approached her and explained, though in his broken English, to convince her that her daughter would never grow further. To me, that particular scene was the most moving and unforgettable in this book. For I am a retired molecular oncologist who has been trying to develop, particular during my stay in Germany, the first effective therapeutics for a genetic disease called NF1 (neurofibromatosis type 1) which causes not only tumors but also frequently LD in many young children.

It was fascinating to read the account from such an "open-minded" individual as Pearl Buck as having had such difficulty dealing with/ accepting her disabled daughter. Although she clearly loved her daughter she hid her from the rest of her family and the rest of the world almost until the end of her life. Ms Buck was an advocate for the disabled but could not deal with society's prejudices with regard to her own child.

A very moving book. The book was written 50 years ago, and it sounds as current as if it had been written today. A mother's feelings are timeless.

As a high school guidance counselor, I would definitely recommend this audio book to my ADD/ADHD students. The main reason I did not give it 5 stars was because of the repetitious music in between chapters. I found it extremely annoying to listen to over and over again! However, this audiobook offers a lot of good insight to students who struggle, and even adults who struggle in the workplace (although it is definitely geared towards high school kids who are off to a traditional 4-year college. I liked that it focused on the whole student, not just the academics. It covers areas such as exercise, diet, time management, and social aspects.
One thing I can recommend to those reading or listening to this book is as a high school sophomore or junior, ask your counselor about applying for extended time before you take SAT's or even PSAT's. This can help a great deal, since the test is timed, and most students end up running out of time.
I did not agree with the author's opinion that students who truly struggle with the daily challenges of ADD should sign up for AP courses in high school. Most (not all, but most) of my students with ADD would not be able to handle the challenges of taking on an AP course, especially since it requires a great deal of independent work and high organizational skills. I do believe that ALL students should sign up for the most challenging classes they can possibly handle in high school, and honors courses are great if appropriate. You can still get into some great colleges if you do not have "AP" written on your transcript. For some students, AP's are just not realistic. But that's ok.
Helpful information overall.

As a psychologist working in a college disabled students service, I am always on the lookout for books and materials to use with/recommend to students. "College Confidence" will now be high on our list. The information, the layout and, importantly, the attitude are all on target.

It's rare that a book comes along that touches your heart while helping you relate to specific problems.

College Confidence with ADD is one such book. Written from the heart, Michael Sandler doesn't preach, but instead shares with you the hurdles involved in succeeding with ADHD, or any learning disability for that matter, how he personally overcame his challenges, and ways you too can succeed.

It's really two books in one...the first, a personal account of overcoming challenges, succeeding with a 'disability', and as Michael puts it, and shares through his own story, turning 'challenges into opportunities'. It's a beautiful book written from the heart sharing his touching stories.

The second book is a how-to guide on overcoming almost every challenge imaginable, and succeeding in school or in life today. Others I've shown this book would say it's a how-to guide for anyone in this modern, hectic, crazy-world. But it's definitely a how-to guide for anyone that think's outside the box, doesn't go from point A to point B in a straight line, or is labeled with AD/HD, Asbergers, Dyslexia, or any other 'learning disability'.

Michael helps readers quickly find the information they, or I am looking for, so that you can get back on track quickly. If you're struggling for a test, the info's in there...need to get organized, it's in there, struggling with relationships in school or beyond, it's in there too.

And it's COLOR!!!!!!

The layout is beautiful, it makes it easy to thumb through, skim at a glance (there are these great tabs on the side that let you skim the book like a dictionary) and with little graphics, icons, and text-boxes, helps keep your attention (That's important for this reader!!!)

If you're looking for one book to overcome challenges, see how others have done it, and figure out how to succeed, this book is worth a try!!!

(I just got the audiobook version after falling in love with the paperback. For my short attention span, the audio-version is even better!


(Here's the Link)(College Confidence with ADD - Unabridged Audiobook - The Ultimate Success Manual for ADD Students, from Applying to Academics, Preparation to Social Success and Everything Else You Need to Know

Like the book, it's short-attention-span friendly. Everything's broken up into bite-size pieces, it covers everything from the main book...I think even more in the medication and alternatives sections...at least that's what I've found so far)

The audiobook has chimes help keep your focus, and you can listen while multi-tasking, walking across campus, in your room, or in your car. You might keep the paperback as the quick reference guide and get the audiobook to go through the whole book...or give the paperback to mom and dad and put the audiobook on your Ipod or other Mp3 player)

As a Director of Student Services in Massachusetts, where Michael Sandler grew up, I am always on the lookout for information that informs and inspires. Michael Sandler's book, College Confidence with ADD, offers a wide array of useful tips, solid facts and a broad perspective that will benefit students and parents alike..even if the students aren't going to college.

I can't say enough about how terrific and unique this book is not only for teens going off to college, in college, post grads... but for ANYONE with ADD or ADHD!! This book is explained in a format where the author shares his stories and then details what he has learned from his experiences, in order to help others. He has ADHD himself and is even a life coach for other ADDers now. This book is like having an ADD coach by your side all the time. You can use it as a guide and flip through various sections when necessary or you can read it cover to cover over and over again. The author's writing is captivating, lighthearted and even humorous at times. He even laughs at his own mistakes sometimes, which truly helps readers see life as a bigger picture than just a current struggle they may be going through at the time. He explains the many creative gifts of having ADD and broaches just about every life topic with great knowledge. His sections range from the best foods for an ADDer to eat to stay focused, to sections on how college students with ADD can keep a great schedule for eating, laundry, and cleaning. He also broaches much deeper sections on depression and impulse behaviors of ADDers. This book is captivating and is such an easy read for someone who may have trouble focusing. It is truly an essential educational resource for ANYONE with ADD or ADHD!!

"Rowe provides a rich picture not only of a particular group of homeless people, but also of the complicated interactions between the marginalized and those who try to help them." -MDSQ Book News

The preceding reviews and comments were presented to the author with permission from: 1. Deirdre Oakley, Psychiatric Services and 2. Cynthia Karlton, Journal of Addiction and Mental Health.

Crossing the Border makes a noteworthy contribution to the field [of qualitative studies of outreach work.] It should be considered an essential read for everyone- from administrators to those on the front line- working with the most marginalized among the homeless.

"Rowe provides a rich picture not only of a particular group of homeless people, but also of the complicated interactions between the marginalized and those who try to help them." -MDSQ Book News

Having been an outreach worker for roughly six years, I found this book to be surprisingly well written. Too often, books tackling this subject present mere caracatures of the people it talks about, vieweing the subjects more as data or political process than real human beings.

This book presents many different points of views and differing types of outreach workers and the people they seek to help. The homeless are not condescended to nor are the outreach workers glamorized. It is quite factual and quite objective.

I saw myself in some of the types and picked up excellent little reminders about the whole homeless issue and those whose lives it affects. If you are looking for a bit more of the 'human' connection of those who are on the front lines (as opposed to the theorists, the politicians, the directors and others removed from the field), this is a great book toward that end.