{"product_id":"9780393340983","title":"A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAt a time when as many as one in five children face the challenge of growing up with a behavioral disorder, more and more parents are finding themselves at a loss to know how best to raise their children.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor Beth Kephart's son, the diagnosis was \"pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified\"-a broad spectrum of difficulties, including autistic features. As the author and her husband discover, all that label really means is that their son Jeremy is \"different in a million wonderful ways, and also different in ways that need our help.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn intimate, incandescent prose, Kephart shares the painful and inspiring experience of loving a child whose \"special needs\" bring tremendous frustration and incalculable rewards. \"What, in the end, are you fighting for: Normal?\" Kephart asks. \"Is normal possible? Can it be defined? . . . And is normal superior to what the child inherently is, to what he aspires to, fights to become, every second of his day?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith the help of passionate parental involvement and the kindness of a few open hearts, Jeremy slowly emerges from a world of obsessive play rituals, atypical language constructions, endless pacing, and lonely frustrations. Triumphantly, he begins to engage others, describe his thoughts and passions, build essential friendships. Ultimately this is a story of the shallowness of medical labels compared to a child's courage and a mother's love, of which Kephart writes, \"Nothing erodes it. It is not sand on a beach. It is the nuclear heart of things-hard as the rock of this earth.\"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Norton, W. W. \u0026 Company, Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42451688325181,"sku":"9780393340983","price":22.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0603\/0838\/9949\/files\/9780393340983_p0.jpg?v=1771588402","url":"https:\/\/www.tatteredcover.mom\/products\/9780393340983","provider":"Tattered Cover","version":"1.0","type":"link"}