When we were in Germany, our neighbor was a woman named Waltraud Czadek and she absolutely loved our children, especially Mindy. She didn't have any grandchildren yet and had no prospects in the immediate future and she really longed for grandchildren. She did many kind things for our family and our children were her surrogate grandchildren while we were there. We wanted to stay connected with her so we tried to make videos for her. We made some in December 2010 and I'm not sure if she ever got the DVD we sent her to work but I was happy to discover these and put them on my blog. There are 9 videos so I'm splitting them up.
This is a juvenile fiction book about a young girl named Melody with severe cerebral palsy. Her body doesn't allow her to feed herself, speak, or do much at all. She's very intelligent with a photographic memory but she can't really communicate. Finally, in 5th grade, she gets a "Medi-Talker" which is a computer that speaks what she types in. Finally she has a voice. This book explores what it is like to be severely physically disabled but not mentally disabled. It seems like one of the most frustrating of all scenarios. She is completely aware of all the cruelty (subtle and otherwise) that her classmates inflict on her because they don't really want to include her in their activities. One of the saddest moments in the book comes when she realizes that every one of her special ed classmates is kind, where the "normal" ones are not. Who really has the worse disability? The book was a quick read and fairly enjoyable. Wha...
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