Changed by a Child

Parenting is always tough, but parenting a child with disabilities, serious injuries, or chronic illness can be a life-changing, profoundly disrupting experience. In Changed by a Child, Barbara Gill provides brief meditations and passages about the challenges, grief, faith, hope, and other feelings and experiences of parents who have a disabled child. Gill's son has Down syndrome, and she writes with the authority and credibility of a parent who has been through it herself. The brief pieces in this small, handsome book are divided into three sections: "In the Beginning," "Rounding the Curves," and "Transformed." It's a credit to Gill's experienced wisdom and her skills as a writer that this material never becomes sentimental or sugary. Temple Grandin, a woman with autism and the author of Thinking in Pictures, writes, "I wish my own mother had had this book when I was a child. If she had read this book she would have realized that she was not alone." For those parents who do feel alone, this book may serve as a kind and compassionate companion. --Ericka Lutz