Autism Uncensored Pulling Back The Curtain

Autism Uncensored goes where no other book dares-revealing the private disgrace and self-blame about having a "defective" child; the near disintegration of marriage; the failure of the traditional behavioral interventions; and the mercenary way in which service providers prey on parents' desperation for a cure.

"In her 2006 memoir Strange Son, Portia Iversen coined the phrase "intact mind" to describe the typical cognitive abilities she believed were buried within even the most seemingly impaired autistic individuals, like her son Dov - who, at nine years old, was completely nonverbal and spent much of his time "chewing on blocks and tapping stones." Although he didn't know the alphabet, colors, or numbers; although he "could hardly point or nod his head to show what he meant"; although doctors had diagnosed Dov as "retarded" and told Iversen she "shouldn't wreck [her] marriage and destroy [her] other children's lives for his sake, when doing so was utterly and completely useless" - although all these things were true about her son, Iversen still imagined him "falling down a deep well, believed to be dead. And then years later, a light shone down that dark shaft and I could see him there, somehow still alive" (emphasis in original)"--

When children are born with disabilities or become disabled in childhood, parents often experience bewilderment: they find themselves unexpectedly in another world, without a roadmap, without community, and without narratives to make sense of their experiences. The Disabled Child: Memoirs of a Normal Future tracks the narratives that have emerged from the community of parent-memoirists who, since the 1980s, have written in resistance of their children’s exclusion from culture. Though the disabilities represented in the genre are diverse, the memoirs share a number of remarkable similarities; they are generally written by white, heterosexual, middle or upper-middle class, ablebodied parents, and they depict narratives in which the disabled child overcomes barriers to a normal childhood and adulthood. Apgar demonstrates that in the process of telling these stories, which recuperate their children as productive members of society, parental memoirists write their children into dominant cultural narratives about gender, race, and class. By reinforcing and buying into these norms, Apgar argues, “special needs” parental memoirs reinforce ableism at the same time that they’re writing against it.

#1 NATIONAL BESTELLER Shortlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction Shortlisted for the 2024 Writers’ Prize Finalist for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism A New York Times Notable Book of 2023 Vulture’s #1 Book of 2023 A Guardian Best Ideas Book of 2023 Named a Best Book of the Year by The Globe and Mail • TIME • Esquire • Slate • Harpers’ Bazaar • The Times • The New Republic • Toronto Star • CBC • The Boston Globe • Electric Lit What if you woke up one morning and found you'd acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you'd devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were similar enough to her own that many people confused her for the other. For a vertiginous moment, she lost her bearings. And then she got interested, in a reality that seems to be warping and doubling like a digital hall of mirrors. It’s happening in our politics as New Age wellness entrepreneurs turned anti-vaxxers find common cause with fire-breathing far right propagandists (all in the name of protecting “the children”). It’s happening in our culture as AI gobbles up music, paintings, fiction and everything in between and spits out imitations that threaten to overtake the originals. And it’s happening to many of us as individuals as we create digital doubles of ourselves, filtered and curated just so for all the other duplicates to see. An award-winning journalist, bestselling author, public intellectual and activist, Naomi Klein writes books that orient us in our time. She has offered essential accounts of what branding, austerity, and climate profiteering have done to our societies and souls. Now, as liberal democracies teeter on the edge, Klein takes aim at absurdist authoritarianism, using a keen sense of the ridiculous to face the doubles that haunt us. Part tragicomic memoir, part chilling reportage and cobweb-clearing analysis, Doppelganger invites readers on a wild ride, smashing through the mirror world, charting a path beyond despair towards true solidarity.

New Book Offers Support and Information for Parents with Special Needs Children, As They Navigate the Special Education System A Mom tells her painful yet inspiring story that both her son and family endured within the public school system as a result of an incorrect Special Ed diagnosis. Offering readers a glimpse into her son's heartbreaking yet ultimately triumphant story, author and mother, Elaine Mellon, unmasks a compelling portrait of the astonishing and overwhelmingly frustrating experiences and roadblocks she faced. Her new book, unREAL Education: Beyond Report Cards (Second Edition), offers a powerful expose' on the public school system (both good and not so good) through the true story of her son's academic struggles. Mellon candidly reveals actual accounts, over a 25 year period, with sometimes shocking revelations that she encountered for many years - often times battling on her own and without the advocacy of school officials. From a mother's perspective who fought tirelessly on behalf of her son, the author reveals how initially, though unsuccessfully, she tried balancing the academic systems put into place in an effort to assist her son, Blake, with his personal educational difficulties. This balancing act provided Mellon with both the sensitivity and understanding of special education both academically and through personal experience. While she initially learned the basic foundation in her graduate studies, it was her ongoing research and advanced training, which proved vital to the plight of her son, thus providing her with the tools to actively and effectively advocate on his behalf. Her successful accomplishments - fueled by extensive research, on-going participation in educational workshops and attending dozens of seminars and conferences for more than a decade - are shared within the pages of her recently published book. (www.unrealeducation.com) Ms. Mellon hopes unREAL Education: Beyond Report Cards (Second Edition) will encourage and offer a fresh perspective of support to other parents and child guardians as they navigate their way through the maze of the public educational system.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2017 From the author of the viral New York Times op-ed column "To Siri with Love" comes a collection of touching, hilarious, and illuminating stories about life with a thirteen-year-old boy with autism that hold insights and revelations for us all. When Judith Newman shared the story of how Apple’s electronic personal assistant, Siri, helped Gus, her son who has autism, she received widespread media attention and an outpouring of affection from readers around the world. Basking in the afterglow of media attention, Gus told anyone who would listen, "I’m a movie star." Judith’s story of her son and his bond with Siri was an unusual tribute to technology. While many worry that our electronic gadgets are dumbing us down, she revealed how they can give voice to others, including children with autism like Gus—a boy who has trouble looking people in the eye, hops when he’s happy, and connects with inanimate objects on an empathetic level. To Siri with Love is a collection of funny, poignant, and uplifting stories about living with an extraordinary child who has helped a parent see and experience the world differently. From the charming (Gus weeping with sympathy over the buses that would lie unused while the bus drivers were on strike) to the painful (paying $22,000 for a behaviorist in Manhattan to teach Gus to use a urinal) to the humorous (Gus’s insistence on getting naked during all meals, whether at home or not, because he does not want to get his clothes dirty) to the profound (how an automated "assistant" helped a boy learn how to communicate with the rest of the world), the stories in To Siri with Love open our eyes to the magic and challenges of a life beyond the ordinary.

Rhian is content in her life. As a pwca, a Welsh shapeshifter, she is bound to the Dark God Arawn as an assassin. So when he assigns her as ambassador to oversee Ontario for him, it's a shock. Her new job? To find out who murdered her predecessor and bring them to justice, as well as to oversee the otherkin and clean up their messes before the humans find them--all to preserve the illusion that magic and supernatural creatures do not exist. The problem? One of the otherkin she's supposed to oversee is her estranged husband, Kai, the only person Rhian never regretted having sex with, and the only one she can't forgive.

When the mermaid performers at Oceanica Marine Park turn violent and attack their handlers, it's Finn Jarvis' job to euthanize them. The work is dangerous, and he botches his latest assignment, causing the death of two additional—and expensive—Mer. His dream of becoming a superstar trainer seems lost until a newly-caught mermaid offers him the opportunity to prove himself. Erie isn't just any mermaid, she's an ocean-princess that's been ripped from her home. She doesn't know what the landfolk want from her, but she's determined to learn air-words and find out. Alone and voiceless, she watches as the other merfolk are broken into submission, but Erie refuses to be subjugated. To avoid the fate of Oceanica's other Mer and eventually make it home, she needs to make the crowds love her as something more than entertainment. While Finn trains Erie in her routine, she teaches herself English. Finn has always seen the Mer as ruthless aquatic predators, but Erie seems more human than fish. Soon he finds himself breaking the number one rule at Oceanica: "Never humanize the Mer." Finn's awe-inspiring routine breaks too many rules, and he's soon fired, with a new trainer taking over Erie's show. One that will do whatever it takes to break and silence her. Finn needs to free Erie before she's broken or killed by her new trainer… or snaps and kills the new trainer herself. To do that, he'll have to launch a campaign to take down one of the most popular attractions in the world, turn his back on his closest friends and family, and protect Erie from ever being captured again.