Beacon Press: Love You to Pieces
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Love You to Pieces

Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs

Editor: Suzanne Kamata   Contributors: Michael Bérubé, Clare Dunsford, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Bret Lott, Carol Zapata-Whelan

The first literary collection fiction, essays, and poetry on raising special-needs children

The first collection of literary writing on raising a child with special needs, Love You to Pieces features families coping with autism, deafness, muscular dystrophy, Down syndrome and more. Here, poets, memoirists, and fiction writers paint beautiful, wrenchingly honest portraits of caring for their children, laying bare the moments of rage, disappointment, and guilt that can color their relationships. Parent-child communication can be a challenge at the best of times, but in this collection we witness the struggles and triumphs of those who speak their own language-or don’t speak at all-and those who love them deeply.
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“Powerful, unflinching, and beautifully rendered, Love You to Pieces is not just an anthology about raising children with special needs, but true literature. Through a combination of fiction, poetry, and memoir—some by renowned authors, others by emerging writers, every piece saturated with hard-won firsthand insight—the loving parents in these pages speak honestly and artfully about every stage of their experience, from the birth of a child with special needs to the arrival of grandchildren. Readers who also wear these shoes will find deep, moving depictions of a reality they know so well. Those with no knowledge of this world will find a literary experience they’ll never forget. “
—Rachel Simon, author of Riding the Bus with My Sister: A True Life Journey

“Love You To Pieces is a unique reading experience: raw, moving, provocative and compelling. The stories are beautifully told, from many different backgrounds and perspectives, but taken together share a common and ultimately triumphant connecting thread: love conquers all.” —Daniel Tammet, author of Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

“Love You to Pieces is groundbreaking. Our public discourse about disability is dominated by the voices of medical professionals and fix your child tomes. These stories elevate the experience of people with disabilities to the level of literature. It is a must buy book for anyone who parents, educates, or supports young people with disabilities.
—Jonathan Mooney, author of The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal

Reviews

Review: Exceptional Parent - March 1, 2009
“[H]ard to put down…a must-read and definite keeper…all types of readers—parents of children with disabilities, their friends and families, literature buffs—will glean something from [Love You to Pieces], be it insight, entertainment, or empathy.”
Review: Mothering - August 1, 2008
"[A] moving collection of well-crafted memoirs, fiction, and poetry that reflects the wild emotional complexities of living with and loving a child with disabilities."
Review: Brain, Child! - July 1, 2008
" . . . a reminder of life's changeability; surprises occur and parents persevere, even in seemingly fixed situations."
Review: Image Journal - June 15, 2008
"Even for readers who are not parenting one of the 8 million babies born worldwide each year with genetic birth defects, this anthology offers something profound. The stories and poems collected here demonstrate vividly that it's in caring for others that we discover our truest humanity." Read Full Review
Review: Library Journal Review - April 15, 2008
"...the work acts as an eloquent support group for these parents. Highly recommended."
Read an interview with Suzanne Kamata in The Greenville Journal (SC)

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Love You to Pieces

ISBN: 978-080700030-4
 Publication Date: 5/1/2008
 Pages: 272
 Size:5.5 x 8.5 Inches (US)
Price:  $16.00
Format: Paperback
Availability: In stock.
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