Cranston Public Library

Olivia Donatelli's dream of a "normal" life shattered when her son, Anthony, was diagnosed with autism at age three. Understanding the world from his perspective felt bewildering. And just as Olivia began to realize that happiness and autism could coexist, Anthony died. Now Olivia is alone in a cottage on Nantucket, separated from her husband, desperate to understand the meaning of her son's short life, when a chance encounter with another woman facing...

In a mining town in Ohio, a boy is invaded by an evil spirit living in a nearby silver mine. The spirit organizes a bloody massacre of the boy's neighborhood by characters from B-movies and Saturday morning TV cartoons which the boy regularly watches.

"With her popular blog, Finding Cooper's Voice, Kate Swenson has provided hope and comfort for hundreds of thousands of parents of children with Autism. Now, Kate shares her inspiring story in this powerful memoir about motherhood and unconditional love"--

Randi Davenport's story is a testament to human fortitude, to hope, and to a mother's uncompromising love for her children.  She had always worked hard to provide her family with a sense of stability and strength, despite the challenges of having a son with autism and a husband whose erratic behavior sometimes puzzled and confused her. But eventually, Randi's husband slipped into his own world and permanently out of her family's. And at fifteen,...

A Masterful, Engrossing Novel About The Life Of A Large Family That Is Deeply Bounded By The Stranger In Their Midst -- An Autistic Child The whole world could not have broken the spirit and strength of the Eberhardt family of 1948. Lainey is a wonderful if slightly eccentric mother. David is a good father, sometimes sarcastic, always cool-tempered. Two wonderful children round out the perfect picture. Then the next child arrives -- and life is never...

A full-length version of the viral "New York Times" op-ed column of the same name shares stories about the author's life with her autistic son, whose therapeutic use of Apple's electronic personal assistant became an unusual example of the power of technology.

"Imagine being trapped inside a Disney movie and having to learn about life mostly from animated characters dancing across a screen of color. A fantasy? A nightmare? This is the real-life story of Owen Suskind, the son of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind and his wife, Cornelia. An autistic boy who couldn't speak for years, Owen memorized dozens of Disney movies, turned them into a language to express love and loss, kinship, brotherhood....

"An emotional, revealing memoir of one family's life in seclusion--and the love, strength, and faith it took to save it. Seahawks star running back Curt Warner and his wife, Ana, were prominent figures in Seattle in the early 1990s. When they dropped from the public eye after Curt's retirement, everyone assumed it was for a simpler life. But the reality behind their seclusion was a secret they hid from even their closest friends: their twins, Austin...

A remarkable memoir by a mother and her autistic daughter who'd long been unable to communicate--until a miraculous breakthrough revealed a young woman with a rich and creative interior life, a poet, who'd been trapped inside for more than two decades. Born with nonverbal autism, Emily's only means of communicating for a quarter of a century had been only one-word responses or physical gestures. Her parents, Valerie and Tom, sought every therapy...