Description
Both a medical drama and meditation on motherhood, The Water Giver is Joan Ryan's honest account of her doubts and mistakes in raising a learning-disabled son and the story of how his near-fatal accident gave her a second chance as a parent.Joan Ryan tells the powerful story of how her sonโs near-fatal accident, and his struggle to become whole again, gave her a second chance to become the mother she had always wished she could be.
โข Acclaimed journalist and Joan Ryanโs sports columns earned her thirteen Associated Press Sports editors Awards, the National Headliner Award, and the Womenโs Sports Foundationโs Journalism Award, among other honors. Her first book, Little Girls in Pretty The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters was named one of the Top 100 Sports Books of all Time by Sports Illustrated.
โข Medical When Ryanโs sixteen-year-old son fell off of a skateboard, it wasnโt obvious at first how serious his injuries were. With a journalistโs eye for the telling detail and the rhythms of a natural storyteller, she captures his medical ordeal as he lurches from crisis to crisisโand with harrowing honesty and astonishing insight, relates her own journey through unknown emotional terrain.
โข A motherโs Ryanโs son was diagnosed with Sensory Integration Dysfunction as a toddler; by the time he reached school age, it was clear that he suffered from ADHD and other learning disabilities. Though she loved him fiercely, she never stopped trying to fix him. When he is restored to her after his accident, she realizes she has the opportunity to be his mother all over againโonly this time she lets go of the illusion of control. Now she not only accepts, but also embraces her son for who he really is. ISBN:9781416576532
