Stuck In Neutral by Terry Trueman: Finished Book Response

At first I did not think that this book would interest me. It was really small and the synopsis did not intrigue me. I was pleasantly surprised after finishing this book though. It was a quick read, but a very powerful one. (SPOILER ALERT) At the end of the book Shawn's dad seems to be preparing to murder his son. Shawn is completely handicapped. He has hardly any motor functions, he can not speak, and he has constant seizures. Everyone thinks that he has the mindset of a 3 year old, but in reality he is actually really smart and even has a photographic memory. His father thinks that he is suffering and he can not even bear to watch his son suffer anymore, so he thinks that the best thing to do is kill him. This book goes along with my single story because Shawn is physically impaired, and I think this will be one of the most useful books when talking about the single story I chose. People who are physically disabled face more challenges than someone who is not, but that does not mean that their quality of life is any less. The book is written from the point of view of Shawn, and when reading you could tell that at the end of the day he was pretty content with his life. He loved his family, and the fact that he could remember everything. He faced many struggles, but he still wanted to be alive. I think that it is very important to realize that just because from the outside it may seem as though people with disabilities have a "lesser" quality of life, but we don't truly know how they feel. We all need to take a step back sometimes and instead of judging people with disabilities based on what they can't do, we should celebrate all of the things that they can do.