I wish I had time in what's left of this school year to read Better Than Weird to my students. Every year I seem to have a student who has a hard time fitting in and making friends. This year I have two. Students seem to understand better when someone has a visible disability that they can put a name to, but when a classmate's disability is a social one, they don't know how to handle it.Aaron, in Better Than Weird, is a student that his classmates don't know how to handle. Some try to be his friend, but are eventually turned off by his "strange" behavior. One student who is struggling with worries at home chooses to take out his frustrations on Aaron. Meanwhile, the school's guidance counselor is trying to help Aaron learn to read people's emotions: "Aaron remembered Karen warning him not to annoy somebody who was frowning... He knew there was all kinds of stuff he shouldn't do, but he had no idea what he should do."
Aaron is being raised by his grandmother. His mother died of cancer when he was quite young and, soon after, his father abandoned him. Now Aaron is in sixth grade and his father has promised to come see him by the end of November. After so many rejections from his classmates, he's worried about what his dad will think of him. He teeters back and forth between hoping his dad will "tell [him] the right things to say" and worrying that his dad won't stay because he's not "normal" enough.
Anna Kerz has done a wonderful job capturing Aaron's heart and emotions- giving voice to our children who struggle to gain the social skills which they often don't develop in troubled homes, and which they so greatly need.
A Slant of Sun by Beth Kephart
This is an autobiographical book that I have been ranting about since I first read it five years ago. Beth Kephart writes about her son, Jeremy, who is "somewhere between autism and normal" or, as the doctors put it, has a "pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified." Jeremy struggles with language and social interaction, goes into "trances" of repeating the same behavior over and over, and will go through year-long obsessions with things like cars, hats, and the Red Baron.Kephart's openness and honesty are touching as she shares how she has worried, searched for answers, struggled with her own emotions, and fought for what her son needs. She validates, I think, how every parent of a child with special needs must sometimes feel- wanting so much to help your child succeed in a world that doesn't understand and too often won't accept him, feeling like you've given all you can and feeling selfish for wanting something in return.
