As a Special Education Teacher, I am always looking for new books and resources that will help me understand my students better and to become a better educator.

 In the past month I have read three books that I have enjoyed very much and I would like to share them with you.

 If you have any questions, please call me know at 466-0274.

1.   A Special Education By Dana Buchman and Charlotte Farber
From the show Hollywood Legend Ellen Burstyn and Sheryl Crow Reveal Their Greatest Life Lessons

From The Publisher: Fashion designer Dana Buchman knew almost nothing about "learning differences" when her oldest daughter, Charlotte, was diagnosed with neurological, spatial and motor skill disabilities as a toddler. Furthermore, from the Ivy League to the launch of her own fashion label, Buchman had encountered few obstacles that couldn't be overcome through hard work and determination. Unfortunately, Buchman's well-developed ability to "fix" things would not serve her in her efforts to deal with Charlotte's disabilities; she would have to develop a new skill set to be able to see Charlotte as a person with unique abilities.

A riveting and intensely personal memoir, A Special Education reveals the long and arduous process of Charlotte's development as well as Buchman's own path to self discovery. Confessing frequent anxiety, guilt, frustration and anger, Buchman describes the difficult search to find the right school and care for Charlotte, and the strain the process put on her marriage and family life. In addition, Buchman tells of her own struggles with excessive drinking and workaholism—and of finally letting go of her drive to be "perfect."

A moving mother-daughter story, A Special Education is an inspiring account of one mother's journey to acceptance and understanding, as well as a family's triumph over daunting circumstances.

Dana Buchman has donated her proceeds from the book to the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

2. Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet

What if every number had its own color, texture or sound? Maybe the number 11 is bright and shiny, five is loud like a clap of thunder and 37 is lumpy like oatmeal. That's how 29-year-old Daniel Tammet interprets numbers. He has Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism, and is what many call an autistic savant. Daniel has the ability to calculate and memorize large sums of numbers as well as learn new languages with little effort.

When he was 4 years old, Daniel says he suffered from near fatal epileptic seizures, which he has now outgrown. He says the seizures, along with his mild form of autism, could be the cause of his unique way of processing information, called synesthesia. "Synesthesia is when wiring in the brain is a little bit different in some people and the consequence in my case [is] the senses are interrelated and mixed together," he says. "Different numbers have different shapes or different colors."

By seeing numbers in such a way, Daniel says he was able to break a European record by memorizing and recounting the mathematical constant Pi to 22,514 digits in just five hours. "All of the different colors and shapes and textures and individual numbers, they flow together in my mind and they're forming a numerical landscape," he says. "It is something that is incredibly memorable for me and so it helps to recite these numbers back."

Numbers are not the only subject that Daniel says he interprets differently than other people. He can learn new languages very quickly as well. In fact, while filming Brainman, a documentary about his life, Daniel says he learned the very difficult Icelandic language in just seven days. He says he learned Icelandic mostly by reading books in the language. "When I read sentences in another language I am able to work out what words mean from the context of the page," he says.

Scientists say Daniel's ability to articulate how his mind functions is much better than many other autistic savants. Daniel says he's working with scientists to figure out exactly what makes his brain so unique. In the meantime, he says his book Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant is a way for him to share his story and help others understand the autistic mind. "Little by little I think together, individuals like myself, scientists, researchers—we are getting a little bit closer to understanding what it [means] to be autistic, and more importantly, what it [means] in the end to be human," he says.

3. Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism by Jenny McCarthy

If your child stopped speaking, wouldn't look you in the eye and completely ignored the world around them, what would you do? In her new book, Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism, actress Jenny McCarthy shares her emotional story of diagnosis, hope, faith and recovery—a journey many thousands of parents now face.

In 2002, Jenny gave birth to a beautiful baby boy she named Evan. As an infant, Evan was full of life, making eye contact and smiling, but soon things started to change. "God was giving me many hints about my son, and I didn't quite see them," she says. "So I know that he had to wake me up with two really big ones."

Jenny says the first of those "big hints" came on a typical morning when Evan was 2 1/2 years old. When Evan, who usually got up at 7 a.m., wasn't stirring by 7:45 a.m. Jenny knew something was wrong. She ran to the nursery. "I open the door and run to his crib and I find him in his crib, convulsing, struggling to breathe, his eyeballs rolled to the back of his head," she says. "I picked him up and I started screaming at the top of my lungs … the paramedics came, and it took about 20 minutes for the seizure to stop."

In that moment, Jenny went from being the mother of an average toddler to being in the  midst of a medical odyssey. Doctor after doctor misdiagnosed Evan until - after many harrowing, life-threatening episodes later- one amazing doctor discovered that Evan was autistic.

Though Evan finally had a diagnosis, Jenny didn't know what to do next, and she soon found herself alone without any resources except for her determination to help her son. Jenny eventually realized that she'd have to become a detective. She spoke with many doctors, parents, governmental agencies, private foundations, end essentially earned a Ph.D. in "Goggle research." At last, she discovered an intense combination of behavioral therapy, diet, and supplements that became the key to saving Evan from autism. And now in this book, she created a road map for parents who are concerned about their own child.