James Beck from Parenting Place Reviews my Book

March 10, 2022

Informative and inspiring, heartwarming and heartbreaking, are some of the words I’d use to describe ‘Dyslexia. Wrestling with an Octopus.’ I found myself laughing and at other times I was on the verge of tears. Why? Because this book is one mother’s story about trying to support her son to navigate through a world that is mostly built by and for neuro-typical humans. And there is something about that challenge, that journey, the wins, the failures, and the lengths that a mother will go to, which will resonate with anyone, regardless of whether they or someone that they care about has dyslexia.

What is the book’s style?

The book itself is written in a style that all of us can relate to. It has the feel of one mum giving another mum advice at the school gate. At times the book is literally written like this (the mother getting advice is called Diane). As a result, this book doesn’t read like dry academia – although there has been a substantial amount of research go into it – rather it reads like a story.

It is the story of a family trying to find out why their child is struggling with specific aspects of life, finding answers both helpful and unhelpful, and then trying to find solutions and strategies which actually work for a young person moving through the world with dyslexia.

How is the book structured?

The book is broken into eight chapters which are all practical and engaging. Each section provides insight into specific aspects of dyslexia. It covers things like the holistic impact of dyslexia, the learning challenges associated with dyslexia and how to tackle them, common overlapping learning difficulties, a strengths-based approach to dyslexia and way more.

What did I get out of it?

I found myself reading the book and reflecting a lot on my childhood and my adult life. I have never been diagnosed with any sort of learning difficulty, but I am pretty sure that every teacher I ever had diagnosed me as either ADHD or “the naughty kid”. Either way, they seemed to learn my name pretty quickly to tell me to be quiet and concentrate. As I read through this book, I noticed so many familiar experiences. I have always felt different, but there was something unique about reading someone else put into words experiences that you have had, which you also thought no one else has had.

For that reason alone, I would recommend this book to anyone who ever had a tough experience at school. However, even if you are not like me and you don’t have some undiagnosed learning difficulty, I would still recommend this book.

Like Harper Lee wrote in To Kill a Mockingbird “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”