Progeria Books

Pretty Like Us is the story of two girls--Beauty McElwrath and Alane Shriver. Beauty, a painfully shy sixth-grader, lives in a small town in Florida with her mother and grandmother, both strong-minded single women. Beauty wants to come out of her shell and make friends, but her efforts have always resulted in teasing from the other kids at school. The fact that her mother is dating her teacher doesn't help matters at all, and Beauty is certain she is destined to always be a social outcast.

Then Alane moves into town. Before the girl even arrives in class, Beauty's teacher has asked the students to be kind to the new girl who suffers from a rare disease known as progreria, an aging disease. When Beauty first sees Alane, she thinks there has been a mistake. Surely this is Alane's grandmother, not the girl herself. No one in sixth grade could look that old.

But it is Alane, and she sits right next to Beauty. Just what Beauty thinks she doesn't need to help her get over her shyness and absence of friends, until she starts to discover that beauty of often more than skin deep, and true friendship sometimes comes in odd packages.

This is truly a must read book for girls. Those who are shy will relate to Beauty, just as those who see themselves as different will relate to both girls. All girls have felt concern over being accepted at some time in their life, and Beauty and Alane's story will not only let them see themselves, but will also give them lots of laughs along the way.

Beauty's voice is authentic, she's a memorable protagonist and the story of her friendship with Alane leaves a likewise lasting impression. Unsentimental yet deeply moving, strongly recommended.

This is an amazing book. I have a new look at families with children that have special needs. It also gives you an inspiration for life and God and a renewed love for your own children.

What a great book! Makes other challenges in life seem a little smaller. This is the best "read" I have had in a long time. Seems like the only thing on the media anymore is negative. What a breath of fresh air! A Must read for everyone!

No matter what is going on in your life, this book will keep you going.
What a special boy to be in this world for such a short time, we all can only hope to make as much of an impact in our lifetime!

This book was such an inspiration to me. It's so different than your ordinary Christian books because it talks about a true life struggle. It's the struggle of a father and a family dealing with a disease that kills. It's also the story of a little boy who brought so much love and pure joy to those he came in contact with. This book is both heartwarming and heartwrenching. The end is the best because of the hope that it brings.

If you want to touch others, give them a copy. This book was such a blessing. I felt like I knew the family after reading about Zach and I wanted to know more. I laughed and I cried. You can't help but fall in love with him. I can make no excuses for myself after getting to know Zach through his father. The person who taught me the most about love and acceptance had Progeria. A beautiful, loving and inspirational story. Thank you for sharing it with us.

This play is inspired lunacy. A hypochondriac mom, a lesbian ex-convict aunt, and a hard drinking sad sack dad are the family that rapidly aging Kimberly has ben saddled with. Loads of fun but very touching at times, especially in the scenes with Kimberly's anagram loving friend. It is laugh out loud funny and has 5 great parts for actors. I think most readers will enjoy the play but I believe it really takes the actors to lift it. Enjoy!

More beautiful, whimsical, touching, absurdist fare from David Lindsay-Abaire--in the vein of another terrific young playwright, Napoleon Ellsworth. It seems as though these two writers (along w/ perhaps Padriac Duffy) are spearheading a revolt against the dead, naturalistic world of theater. And it couldn't've happened a moment too soon! BRAVO!

Judging by the reviews, this wild and wacky comedy was not fully appreciated when, after a run at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, Ca., it was later staged in New York. Though it's true the play tends to crumble at the very end, and therefore seems to that extent more a work in progress than a fully satisfying whole, some of its scenes surpass anything Lindsay-Abaire has done before or since. The conceit, for instance, of having a child age at a rate faster than her parents, while it has been used before, here freshly shows a satiric author less interested in literal medical history than in the sad discovery that many contemporary American parents, themselves self-centered and immature, force their children in mind and spirit to become the more fully recognizable adult members of a household. The business of ageing, thus, has a wonderfully comic metaphorical import. The adults in the play, hilariously enough, are chiefly interested in themselves, in playing childish board games, in attempting con jobs or in hoping to visit more of the endlessly proliferating "theme parks" in an America whose very history has been grotesquely commercialized.
The central role in the play, a triumphantly conceived one, affords any good actress of a certain age an opportunity to show fully what she can do. The part requires at first the words and convincing body language of a perky teenager and then the manner and appearance of a combination of, say, the late Rose Kennedy and a bag lady. This part, to Lindsay-Abaire's credit, is a great theatrical "role," and when I saw it performed the central actress in fact fully deserved what has otherwise become a meaningless ritual in our current theater, the standing ovation. With luck perhaps the playwright will revisit this work, strengthen the ending, and give it the revival or film version it surely deserves.