Another Winner! Finding Lina A Mother's Journey from Autism to Hope from Skyhorse Publishing
Finding Lina A Mother's Journey from Autism to Hope, is a memoir that AofA readers will relate to from the opening pages to the loving and upbeat afterword. It's a story of challenges, seeking answers, how a family copes and evolves (not always in a fairytale fashion) and most of all - love.
Lina's Dad is Skyhorse Publisher Tony Lyons. This is important for a few reasons. His life and love for Lina spurred him to create a home for autism books within the Skyhorse Parenting category that might otherwise never see the light of day from traditional publishing. That's so important to our community. Books like Callous Disregard from Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Cutting Edge Therapies for Autism by Ken Siri and Tony Lyons and All I Can Handle I'm No Mother Teresa by Kim Stagliano.
Lina was a precocious toddler—charming, chatty, joyful. At the age of three, in the aftermath of her second MMR vaccine, first came a seizure, and then, to her parents’ horror, the loss of Lina’s ability to play, use language, and control her impulses. Over the next few years they continued to lose Lina. She communicated her acute discomfort by biting, screaming, hitting, laughing maniacally, and throwing violent tantrums. As a single mother, with the help of her ex-husband, Helena Hjalmarsson tirelessly pursued every possible avenue to find a diagnosis, and more importantly a treatment, for her daughter, and the search continues to this day. Lina is nine.
Special schools, restrictive diets, sensory stimulation, relationship-based therapy, gastrointestinal links, homeopathy, and allergy treatment are all explored in detail. Hjalmarsson finds out what helps Lina and what doesn’t. She introduces sign language to Lina. She engages in lengthy daily intensive one-on-one sessions. With the help of her ex, angelic babysitters, Lina’s exceptionally empathetic younger sister, and supportive friends, Hjalmarsson manages to create a meaningful life for Lina, and for herself—a life of love and transcendence.
Lina, for all her challenges, has much to teach, and Hjalmarsson is a receptive student: finding joy in moments of connection, learning to live in the present, taking nothing for granted, accepting what others find unbearable, and finding a strength and spiritual base for inspiration and healing.
Unflinchingly honest and courageous, Finding Lina will open the eyes and hearts and minds of all parents, whether they have a child with autism or not.
Please leave a comment to enter the contest to win a copy.
Always looking for new ideas and inspiration in this journey with autism. Would love to reads this book.
Posted by: Eliuth Espinoza | September 26, 2013 at 05:15 AM
Have read this book - a wonderful story about learning to live in the moment and of acceptance. It really made me think about my relationship with my son who is on the spectrum. It is also a wonderful story about parents who, although divorced, are able to nurture their altered relationship for the good of their kids.
Posted by: Peggy Becker | September 20, 2013 at 03:27 PM
Would like to read this and being free is better.
Posted by: trina Aurin | September 20, 2013 at 07:56 AM
Would love to have this book. Thank you!
Posted by: Michelle Wandrack | September 19, 2013 at 08:32 PM