From Where I Sit: Making My Way with Cerebral Palsy

Shelley Nixon's book lets those without cerebral palsy know what her world looks like from the inside. The stories she tells are rooted in emotions; her horror of anesthesia and pain following surgeries; the hurt she felt when children rejected her for no reason except her differences; the pleasure she feels when one small child is allowed by her mother to talk to Shelley, asking questions that the mother was too shy to ask; her hunger for adventure that doesn’t allow her CP to get in the way of sailing, parasailing, or scary amusement park rides.


Reviewers loved the book: A fifteen year old girl with cerebral palsy said, “It was me!” and bought copies for friends and family so they could better understand her own experiences. A parent of an eleven year old boy who had the same surgeries as Shelley said it was helpful to learn what Shelley needed from her parents at that age, and that she intends to share the book with her son’s teachers and caregivers to “give them some sense of what he goes through.”


Shelley Nixon, Scholastic, Inc., 1999, $4.99.


Updated: 08/03/2010