She spends hours playing happily with her two brothers outside their father’s pub. But Ruby’s world is turned upside down when a moment of disobedience results in a tragic accident, and she must learn to come to terms with the consequences.When the Chadwick family’s circumstances unexpectedly change they relocate to salubrious surroundings in respectable Brixton. As Ruby comes of age, she dreams of a future that allows her independence and a chance to find love, though her stern father has other ideas.Her fortunes change when she accepts a job as companion to a cantankerous old lady and crosses paths with a charming Irishman named Michael. Yet before long Ruby must once more choose whether to defy her family and make her own choices – whatever the cost…An absorbing and atmospheric London saga, Ruby Chadwick is a must-read for fans of Jean Fullerton, Lindsey Hutchinson and Rosie Goodwin.

    It can take years to properly diagnose, often leaving its victims suffering not only from the disease, but from the uncertainty about whether they have the disease andfrom the not-insignificant problem of finding a physician to treat them. The disease is lupus, which, simply put, is what happens to the body when it becomes allergic to itself. It is quite widespread and it is highly deadly, claiming the lives of thousands of patients yearly. Now patients and their families can turn to The Lupus Book, a clear, reassuring guide that explains virtually every aspect of the disease. Written by Daniel J. Wallace, M.D., one of the world's leading experts on the subject, The Lupus Book is packed with useful, easy-to-understand information andpractical guidance for the sufferer. Here the reader will discover clear descriptions of the symptoms that most commonly afflict victims of lupus, a helpful survey of all aspects of diagnosis--from why the disease is so difficult to recognize to the latest, most innovative tests--and backgroundinformation on the cause of the disease, which researchers now believe is genetic in origin. Wallace shows how lupus may affect different organ systems in the body, including the brain, heart, and lungs; he offers well-informed advice on how patients can work with their doctors to take an activerole in fighting the disease through exercise, diet, and medication; and perhaps most important, he answers the questions he is most often asked by his patients, including queries on prevention, cure, sun exposure, pregnancy, and many other concerns. Throughout the book, Wallace reveals a talent forcommunicating difficult concepts to the general reader as he illustrates his discussion with numerous anecdotes culled from his years of clinical experience (he has treated over one thousand lupus patients). Nearly one million people suffer from lupus in the United States alone. More common than leukemia, multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, and muscular dystrophy combined, lupus is a pervasive and little- understood condition. With The Lupus Book in hand, lupus sufferers as well as their families, friends, and physicians have a reliable guide that will answer their questions and help them to better manage their day-to-day fight against this debilitating disease

    Davis argues forcefully against 'ableist' discourse and for a complete recasting of the category of disability itself. Enforcing Normalcy surveys the emergence of a cluster of concepts around the term 'normal' as these matured in Western Europe and the United States over the past 250 years. Linking such notions to the concurrent emergence of discourses about the nation, Davis shows how the modern nation-state contracted its identity on the backs not only of colonized subjects, but of its physically disabled minority. In a fascinating chapter on contemporary cultural theory, Davis explores the pitfalls of privileging the figure of sight in conceptualizing the nature of textuality. And in the treatment of nudes and fragmented bodies in Western art, he shows how the ideal of physical wholeness is both demanded and denied in the classical aesthetics of representation. Enforcing Normalcy redraws the boundaries of political and cultural discourse. By insisting that disability be added to the familiar triad of race, class, and gender, the book challenges progressives to expand the limits of their thinking about human oppression.

    One patient is so blind with illness that he can barely see the dog; it looks like a smudge.But, oh, how nice to hold the puppy. What is Cindy to do? How will she care for Smudge?How Smudge Came was made into an award winning television movie and became an international best seller.Awards and Nominations: Winner of the 1996 Mr. Christie Book Award Winner of the 1996 Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice Citation

    From introducing the alphabet to writing and spelling, these lesson are easy to follow. The reproducible pictures and flashcards that are included will appeal to visual learners. Photos.

    It is a story of obstacles--physical, emotional, and psychic--overcome again, and again, and again. Whether riding a mule up a hillside in Iraq surrounded by mud-stained Kurdish refugees, navigating his wheelchair through intractable stretches of Middle Eastern sand, or auditioning to be the first journalist in space, John Hockenberry, ace reporter, is determined not only to bring back the story, but also to prove that nothing can hold him back from death-defying exploits. However, he will never be a poster boy for a Jerry Lewis telethon. A paraplegic since an auto accident at age nineteen, Hockenberry holds nothing back in this achingly honest, often hilarious chronicle that ranges from the Ayatollah's funeral (where his wheelchair is pushed by a friendly Iranian chanting "Death to all Americans"), to the problems of crip sex and the inaccessibility of the New York City subway system. In this immensely moving chronicle--so filled with marvelous storytelling that it reads like a novel--John Hockenberry finds that the most difficult journey is the one that begins at home, as he confronts the memories of his beloved one-armed grandfather, and finally meets his institutionalized Uncle Peter, whose very existence was long a secret buried in the family history.Moving Violations is a sometimes harrowing but ultimately joyful ride.

    So began Anne Bolander's five-year ordeal at an institution for retarded and unwanted children. Emotions were not allowed at the institution, where children were beaten bloody for laughing, crying, or even touching another child. Children lived a robotic existence, and like robots, were known by numbers instead of names. Anne was #87.She endured five years of this abuse before being removed and placed in St. Mary's of Providence Center, where teachers correctly assessed her as deaf, not retarded. After only one year, Anne returned home and there survived many more years of abuse. Her story calls for vigilance today and everyday.

    That book ended by describing the existence of a "remission society," whose members all live with some form of illness or disability. The Wounded Storyteller is their collective portrait.Ill people are more than victims of disease or patients of medicine; they are wounded storytellers. People tell stories to make sense of their suffering; when they turn their diseases into stories, they find healing.Drawing on the work of authors such as Oliver Sacks, Anatole Broyard, Norman Cousins, and Audre Lorde, as well as from people he met during the years he spent among different illness groups, Frank recounts a stirring collection of illness stories, ranging from the well-known—Gilda Radner's battle with ovarian cancer—to the private testimonials of people with cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, and disabilties. Their stories are more than accounts of personal suffering: they abound with moral choices and point to a social ethic.Frank identifies three basic narratives of illness in restitution, chaos, and quest. Restitution narratives anticipate getting well again and give prominence to the technology of cure. In chaos narratives, illness seems to stretch on forever, with no respite or redeeming insights. Quest narratives are about finding that insight as illness is transformed into a means for the ill person to become someone new.

    The vulnerability that is so much part of their lives reveals our own limits and forces us to ask questions that can lead us to profound liberation.

    The book also presents a new way of looking at the indicators of sexual abuse in the population of people who have developmental disabilities.

    They pressure abnormal people to change their appearance, fix what bothers others, or stay out of sight -- a pressure Leslie Fiedler has named "The Tyranny of the Normal". This anthology examines the experiences of those who live outside social norms for attractiveness, size, and shape; it also explores the reactions of "normal" people to those who seem grotesque.