Michael Bérubé

I had no idea there was a "sequel" about Jamie growing up. I enjoyed it very much. It reminded me a lot of _Adventures in the Mainstream_ by Greg Palmer (travel, how hard it is for an adult with Down Syndrome to find a job.) In the 1990s when I read the first book about Jamie, I was very interested in the academic/bioethics/philosophical portion of that book. Now that I'm old and jaded, I was not very interested in that side--yeah, I get it, life is complex and a lot of bioethicists like Peter Singer are knobs. I just wanted to read fun stories about Jamie losing his retainer and doing Special Olympics and stuff like that. This all sounds very flippant, but for anyone who doesn't already see people with disabilities as their own individual selves and worthy of respect, this book can show them. Bérubé's book also illustrates how a child with Down Syndrome's infancy/earliest years can be pretty fraught or scary, maybe with surgeries and feeding tubes, and then perhaps become closer to the fare that parents expect, with their kids having trouble with school or dating. I appreciated the author's care in not revealing things his son didn't want him to and trying not to speak for him.… (mehr)

Reading Michael Berube's second book, I found that his writing style was accessible and conversational, while also dispensing quite a bit of information about disability studies - in a way that a non-academic could easily understand. I especially appreciated this, as I started the book having not read his first book about life with his son, Jamie, and knowing virtually nothing about Down's syndrome - or rather just enough to be misinformed!

While I am sure that there is a rather wide continuum of "disability" and ablilty among persons Down's syndrome, I felt foolish that had never considered how intellectually curious, emotionally sensitive, and "able" those individuals COULD be. If for nothing other than debunking my preconceived ideas in that area, the book is a tremendous gift to the reader.

The sensitivity that Berube shows regarding what Jamie would or would not like to be included in the book was also important, as it reminds the reader that Jamie is not simply the passive subject of his father's memoir/commentary on disability. I also had to chuckle, as the mother of 14-year-old twins, when, in observing that Jamie requires some reminding about maintaining personal hygiene, Berube observes that this is "very much like every American male teenager" - TOO true!… (mehr)

As a teacher of exceptional young adults, I enjoyed reading this book about the life of an interesting and thoughtful young man. Aside from the accounts of Jamie's life and activities, there are parts of the book that made me think about more than just the life of a young man with Downs but about the lives of my two grown sons and indeed my life. What is important, after all? I want everyone to see my students for the people they are, not through the lens of their disabilities. I enjoyed meeting Jamie through these pages and hearing about what he thinks about many things.… (mehr)