Reader's reactions......
An honest and compelling telling of a deeply personal journey
Special Needs provides an intimate, carefully rendered portrayal of one mother’s experience raising a child with disabilities. Gail Frizzell’s feelings of bewilderment, sadness, sometimes anger, sometimes joy, and always, always profound love for Lauren, are written about with unflinching honesty. As a mother of a child with disabilities, I could relate to much of what Gail has to say, and am very grateful she’s taken the time to write a book that helps bring to light some of this complicated, hard-to-describe, often invisible journey that so many families are on.
— Kathy Roberson, author Moments of Departure
Required Reading
With tenderness, honesty - and even humor - Gail Frizzell captures the bone-numbing exhaustion, social isolation, loss, fear, and tiger-mother love that transformed her as she learned to raise her daughter with severe disabilities. Her comprehensive knowledge of "the system" reveals how her profoundly personal experiences are affected by policy and politics. Frizzell's book is a quick read that will change the way you look at people with disabilities and their families. Occasionally heart-breaking, these essays do not invite pity, rather, they invite action. Special Needs should be required reading for doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers, therapists, friends, neighbors and especially, for lawmakers and policymakers.
— Brenda Considine, Considine Communication Strategies
Extraordinary
Just read this book from cover to cover. Could not put it down. Saw myself on every page. I laughed... I cried... I rejoiced.... I cursed. So much left to do. I am moved touched and inspired to join the cause.
—Loretta Darling Nicola