I learned that through love, humor and understanding, you can be a good parent to a special needs child, especially an autistic child who has no comprehension of right or wrong. Keller was a bright beacon of joy. Since I have good friends with three grandchildren with autism, I have a lot of empathy for Jeff, our former bishop's second oldest son. This is my second novel about autism and I loved both books. I love books like this that tug at the heartstrings.Bravo Keller!!! Since this story trook place in the 50's, we didn't know much about mental illness and it was sad how people were so ignorant and showed little understanding like we do today. I've worked with mentally challenged children and found them a joy to work with. With love and understanding, we can move mountains with how we relate to our family members and to everyone around us.From Amazon's Editorial Comments: "Keller is a force to be reckoned with! The year is 1955, and few people understand or tolerate mental handicaps. For Beverly and Warren Vance, the daily struggle to live with their handicapped son, Keller, is taking its toll. Keller is large for his age and often aggressive, prone to throwing tantrums and breaking everything in sight. Beverly and Warren have been encouraged to institutionalize him, or at least keep him out of public view. But they decided long ago that trying to teach and raise him was a better option - at least until now. When a shocking development and a disastrous incident complicate their decision, the lines between right and wrong become increasingly blurred. Yet in the end, through their own choices they come to understand that the most important thing in life is family."
Paperback: Trade Paperback, 218 pages
Publisher: Cedar Fort Inc. (March 10, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599551152
ISBN-13: 978-1599551159
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,302,616 in Books
Purchase Keeping Keller here.
2 comments:
This is on my "next to read list" and I can't wait to dive in. I've heard such good things about it.
This is a must read!!!Keeping Keller pulled at your heartstrings as a Mother and as a women. It makes you realize how far we have come in how we treat each other.
Some of the things in the book, I could totally relate with. The red chrome edged table and red padded chairs, that is exactly what we had in our house.
Reading this reminded me of our neighbors in Layton, who lived right across the street from us. They had a family of 4 boys. The youngest boy was severly mentally handicapped. He wasn't really allowed to go outside, they pretty much kept him in the house.Back then I thought it was to keep him out of trouble, but after reading this book I am not so sure now. In fact I think they must have experienced discrimination on several fronts. One because they were a hispanic family, and two because of their sons' handicap. I never really thought about it, because my Dad didn't allow that kind of behavior. We were taught to treat everyone the same, with respect.
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