Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Some of my favorite passages from Back Home

“Everybody needs a fort.

You can live without a lot of things in your life, things other people might say you need.  But all you really need is a fort.  It can be small, but it has to be sturdy.  It’s the place you can go when you don’t have anywhere else to go.  A place where there won’t be a lot of questions.  A place where people won’t be looking at you or making judgments or assumptions about you.  A fort is all about protection.” (page 1)

“My mother likes to make speeches.  She’s one of those people who believes she can get out ahead of things –bad things, I mean –by preparing everybody in advance, by speaking slowly and carefully about the sadness or confusion or frustration you’re about to feel.  It’s almost like she’s trying to put a frame around things, to sort of steer the world in the right direction, or at least have a say in how other people feel.  I don’t mind.  I know why she does that.  Adults need to have a lot of control over what happens.” (page 4)

“…the word accident was not the kind of word you could count on.  It wasn’t a word that held its meaning.  It changed.  It shifted.  It could be one thing in relation to one person; it could be something totally different in relation to another person.

Accident was just not a word you could ever trust.” (page 29)

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Traumatic Brain Injury

If you’re interested in learning more about traumatic brain injury, like what Rachel’s father suffered, try this website on preventing, treating and living with TBI http://www.brainline.org/landing_pages/Family.html.  The website is an off-shoot of the government’s Defense and Veteran’s Brain Injury Center, and includes videos of survivors of brain injury and people who are coping with and living with TBI. 

 

pearce Recently, snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a traumatic brain injury during training.  One month after his accident, Pearce was transferred from University of Utah Hospital to Craig Hospital, a world renowned center for specialty rehabilitation and research for people with traumatic brain injury.  Here are links to a couple of press releases about the accident and Pearce’s recovery. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2010/01/snowboarder-kevin-pearce-1.htmlhttp://www.examiner.com/x-7400-Vermont-Amateur-Sports-Examiner~y2010m2d4-Vermont-snowboarder-Kevin-Pearce-moved-to-new-rehab-facility

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

If you like Back Home…

Interested in reading some other stories about people recovering from brain injuries?  I was surprised to find so few books, but here are a few:

Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman

Trigger by Susan Vaught

Finding Grace by Alyssa Brugman

This month’s books now available!

Copies of Back Home by Julia Keller are available for check out in the YA Dept. of the Westwood Library