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	DISABILITY RESOURCES ONLINE
	Monitoring, Reviewing and Reporting on Resources For Independent Living
	Updated 3/2008
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Born On A Blue Day: Inside The Extraordinary Mind Of An Autistic Savant
by Daniel Tammet

Free Press, 2007. Hardcover, 240 pages, $24.00

 

With a sharp increase in the number of autism diagnoses over the last few years, there has been a growing demand for consumer-related material as families seek information on available treatment options and coping strategies. In addition, interest among the general public has also risen as evidenced by the popularity of books by Temple Grandin and film documentaries featuring individuals such as Daniel Tammet, the math and language savant and author of an engaging and engrossing memoir, Born On A Blue Day.

Born in 1979 in London, Tammet, the eldest child in a large family, writes movingly of his early years of difference and isolation and of his conscious move towards independence as a gay adult and computer and language specialist settled in Kent with his partner.

As with all first-rate memoirs, Born On A Blue Day offers readers a glimpse of an unknown world and how the author travels through it. It is easy to see why Tammet's book has become a New York Times bestseller. We at Disability Resources count it among the best memoirs we have come across in over a decade.

 

-Reviewed by Sally Rosenthal

Children With Visual Impairments: A Parents' Guide
edited by M. Cay Holbrook

Woodbine House, 2006, 2nd ed. Softcover, 434 pages, $18.95

 

Although I have been a book reviewer for close to thirty years, I have to admit that certain books amaze me on a personal and a professional level. Such is the case with Children With Visual Impairments: A Parents' Guide. This very reasonably priced, consumer-oriented volume of medical, legal, educational, and social information is a "must have" for anyone raising a visually impaired child from birth to five years of age.

With chapters by professionals from a variety of disciplines and family members, editor Holbrook has done a fine job of bringing together current information on subjects as diverse as types of visual impairments, legal issues, literacy, self-esteem, orientation and mobility, family concerns, early intervention, and children with multiple disabilities. Although we at Disability Resources are not familiar with the previous edition of this book, this second edition reportedly contains updated legal and educational information as well as a wealth of current resources such as organizations and reading lists.

As a former college librarian and occupational therapist, there is nothing I like more than an easily understood, practical volume of information aimed at a group really hungry for direction and ideas. As someone who has been visually impaired all her life, I only wish parents of my parents' generation had had such an excellent roadmap as today's parents will find in Holbrook's collection.

 

 

-Reviewed by Sally Rosenthal

 

 

About the reviewer: A former college librarian and occupational therapist, Sally Rosenthal writes for a variety of publications on the topics of companion animals, working dogs, and disability while waiting for the arrival of Spring and her second guide dog.