To the Land of the Lost {book review}

I have a friend that works for the publishing group of this book and I happened to see that they were releasing this book from a parent of a child with Asperger’s. Since I did a recent series on the topic of Life with Asperger’s, I thought this would be a great book to review on my blog!

The book is called To the Land of the Lost by Tracy Maguire. Tracy herself has a child {now grown} with Asperger’s and shares the struggles that she had with her son led that to the writing of this book.

My nephew has Asperger’s and they live down the street from us. So he is in and out of our home regularly playing with my children. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law share openly the struggles they have, what they are learning and new ways they are trying to help my nephew. My nephew is in public school and I hear about the struggles – and successes – of his school days. I love hearing about the new things that my nephew’s teachers try out with him…all of them trying to find ways to help him be successful!

The author of this book, however, had a son diagnosed with Asperger’s before it became so mainstream. I found myself appalled at the lack of help she had in dealing with her sons issues pertaining to his Asperger’s and his education, specifically. I was sad that she didn’t have access to the help that my nephew has.  Of course, raising a child with Asperger’s isn’t easy in ANY decade, I just was heartbroken over the lack of knowledge and help in their situation.

I would say this book was hard to write. Tracey shares details of the very, very hard days with her son. Days she was physically hurt by her son. The many, many days she could not get her son into the school door. The letters she received about her son’s behavior. The different schools she tried, the different doctors…she was wholeheartedly devoted to finding help for her son.

As a last resort, the author of this book has a tutor/teacher come into their home to try and teach her son. This ends up being the most successful thing they tried throughout quite a few years of his schooling! Her son ended up finishing high school in this manner! The tutor they found for him was a true godsend.

Finally having a good experience in education for her son, Tracy shared this…

“Without ever leaving his room, his character and who he is as a person touched people. It have me hope that my son would be of great value to society just by being who he is.” Tracy Maguire from To The Land of the Lost.

This book ended with the author sharing how her faith in God played such a big role in her survival of many hard years of living with Asberger’s. I love that she brings her faith into it. I love that she is real and doesn’t gloss over the difficult days. All of us, as moms, whether we have a child with Asperger’s or not, need to hear from other moms that IT IS HARD.

I think if you have a child on the spectrum, this book will encourage you and you will really enjoy hearing from another mom who has lived to tell the story of her son’s first 18 years of life!