Love You to Pieces

Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs

Edited By Suzanne Kamata

Reviewer: Allison Martin

Love You to Pieces is a thought-provoking and emotional literary journey through the voices of their parents into the lives of families of children with serious disabilities. This professional edited collection of short stories and poems provides a glimpse into the struggles of living with long term disabilities that are rarely visible to the "normal" world. Topics are difficult and complex, and seldom discussed openly: fears of outliving your child, feelings of isolation and despair, relationship struggles, physical exhaustion, reminders of your child's inevitable early death, sorrow over what might have been…

The breadth and intensity of this collection will take your breath away while captivating your interest. Stories range from heartwarming to poignantly sad, and from raw and complex to concise and polished. Many of the children are middle school and older, presenting the complexity of life long disabilities beyond the cute baby stage. A wide range of disabilities are encompassed as well: autism, hydrocephalus, mental retardation, continual seizures, spinal bifida, muscular dystrophy, and more. Unusual in this literature, the parents themselves represent a range of economic and racial backgrounds.

Suzanne Kamata, who has a son with special needs and who lives in Japan, is well aware of the isolation of families with special needs children. She compiled this anthology after realizing how seldom special needs families were represented in literature. I recommend it to anyone who has a child with special needs, as well as to professionals working with these families.

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