Saturday, November 23, 2013

Thanks to everyone who joined us in our discussion of Sharon Draper's Out of My Mind!  It was wonderful to have Tania from Lambeth's Mother Daughter Book Club visiting - and to learn about her work with young people with autism and cerebral palsy.  How wonderful too to hear the work of all our mother members -- everyone had worked in some capacity with special needs children and had so many insights from their experience to add to our discussion.  Thanks to all our teens for their honesty and reflection on their own views of those with physical and mental challenges.  When Tania asked if this book had changed the way we thought about disabilities we all agreed it did. 

Thanks to my friend Pat who loaned us his manual wheelchair, we were able to see all the barriers encountered -- whether it was not being able to reach the Terry Pratchett book we wanted, or the stares we may have had from strangers.

Here's the link to the video about Carly from Toronto who is autistic and whose world was changed by finding her voice through a computer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNZVV4Ciccg

Thanks for a wonderful discussion!  Look forward to our meeting in January! I'll add a blog just about Graphic Novels next week so we'll all be prepared to discuss this visual genre!