Book Review: I Have Been Buried Under Years of Dust by Valerie Gilpeer and Emily Grodin

I Have Been Buried Under Years of Dust
by Valerie Gilpeer and Emily Grodin (Biography Grodin)

This book is the fascinating true story of Emily Grodin, an autistic adult woman who overcame many obstacles with the support and fierce determination of her parents to help her find her voice. Emily’s parents challenged the school districts year after year in their struggle to provide Emily with a quality education amidst her peers. Although Emily was not able to communicate, she was clearly an intelligent person with the ability to absorb everything around her. A breakthrough finally comes during her college years when she begins to communicate using a keyboard and the facilitated communication method. With the ability to finally communicate with her parents and college peers, Emily’s world opens up and she begins to create goals for her own future. One of the things I enjoyed the most about this book is the presentation of her life through her parents’ words, followed by Emily’s own descriptions of what was going on in her mind at that time. This inspiring story is well worth reading. It also includes original poetry composed by Emily after her breakthrough.

 

( official Book and Authors web site )

 

Recommended by Kim J.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!