The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son

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The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son

3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 · rating details · 854 ratings · 183 reviews

Walker Brown was born with a genetic mutation so rare that doctors call it an orphan syndrome: perhaps 300 people around the world also live with it. Walker turns twelve in 2008, but he weighs only 54 pounds, is still in diapers, can’t speak and needs to wear special cuffs on his arms so that he can’t continually hit himself. “Sometimes watching him,” Brown writes, “is lik...more

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published September 22nd 2009 by Random House Canada (first published April 28th 2009)

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Mar 18, 2011 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, goodread-first-read

Many years ago, Dear Abby published an essay in her column called "Welcome To Holland," about how having a handicapped child is like planning a trip to Rome but ending up in Holland. It's not what you were expecting, and at first you're really disappointed, but then you find out Holland is nice. You like it there, it's better than Rome.

In Ian Brown's case, when his son Walker was born with a rare genetic condition called cardiofaciocutaneous (CFC) syndrome, it was "Welcome To Hell." Walker will...more

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May 12, 2013 Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A New York Times Top 10 Book of 2011

“[A]n intimate glimpse into the life of a family that cares around the clock for a disabled child, that gets so close to the love and despair, and the complex questions the life of such a child raises...It is a beautiful book, heartfelt and profound, warm and wise.”

—Jane Bernstein, author of Loving Rachel and Rachel in the World

Ian Brown’s son Walker is one of only about 300 people worldwide diagnosed with cardiofaciocutaneous (CFC) syndrome—an

...more

A New York Times Top 10 Book of 2011

—Jane Bernstein, author of Loving Rachel and Rachel in the World

Ian Brown’s son Walker is one of only about 300 people worldwide diagnosed with cardiofaciocutaneous (CFC) syndrome—an extremely rare genetic mutation that results in unusual facial appearance, the inability to speak, and a compulsion to hit himself constantly. At age thirteen, he is mentally and developmentally between one and three years old and will need constant care for the rest of his life.

Brown travels the globe, meeting with genetic scientists and neurologists as well as parents, to solve the questions Walker’s doctors can’t answer. In his journey, he offers an insightful critique of society’s assumptions about the disabled, and he discovers a connected community of families living with this illness. As Brown gradually lets go of his self-blame and hope for a cure, he learns to accept the Walker he loves, just as he is.

Honest, intelligent, and deeply moving, The Boy in the Moon explores the value of a single human life.

Review

"A father’s candid, heart-wrenching account of raising, loving and trying to connect with and gain insight into his severely disabled son...Much more than a moving journal of life with a disabled child; it is about Brown’s quest to understand his son and his son’s condition...An absorbing, revealing work of startling frankness."--Kirkus Reviews

“The truth Brown learns from his severely disabled child is a rare one: The life that seems to destroy you is the one you long to embrace.”--*New York Times Book Review

"Unforgettable...Crisp, observant and, occasionally, subversively funny...In the end, as in the beginning, Brown questions the value of a life like Walker's, "lived in the twilight and often in pain." He sometimes locates it in Walker himself. Another answer is this book."--Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Honest and deeply moving."--Tucson Citizen

About the Author

IAN BROWN is an author and a feature writer for The Globe and Mail. The Boy in the Moon has won three of Canada’s most prestigious literary awards: the Charles Taylor Prize, the Trillium Book Award, and the British Columbia National Book Award for Nonfiction.

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Apr 07, 2013 Kathleen Maguire rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book sort of by accident -- it was on the New shelf right near the checkout desk at the library and I remembered reading an excerpt in the NYT so I brought it home. These books about other people's trauma always make me feel guilty in two ways: one, that my life is so much easier than theirs, and two, that their trauma makes for interesting reading. I expected to get the "disabled child opens the eyes of everyone around him to a new perspective on what it means to be an able human."...more

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Nov 23, 2012 Laurie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The boy in the moon is Brown’s son, who has an extremely rare genetic disease that has given him both mental and physical handicaps. CFC- cardiofaciocutaneous- syndrome is not a hereditary disease but one that randomly crops up, so the author and his wife had no inkling that their second child might not be like their first one. Walker cannot speak or even swallow (he is fed through a tube directly into his stomach) or control his bladder or bowels, and requires constant care, which his parents (...more The boy in the moon is Brown’s son, who has an extremely rare genetic disease that has given him both mental and physical handicaps. CFC- cardiofaciocutaneous- syndrome is not a hereditary disease but one that randomly crops up, so the author and his wife had no inkling that their second child might not be like their first one. Walker cannot speak or even swallow (he is fed through a tube directly into his stomach) or control his bladder or bowels, and requires constant care, which his parents (both writers and so home a great deal of the time) and a nanny provide for him at home for the first 11 years of his life. The hardest part of dealing with him, however, is not the diapers or lifting a child growing into his teens or the fact that they never get to sleep an entire night, but the fact that Walker hits himself in the head all the time. As one can guess, that’s agonizing to watch. And it finally comes to a point where they just can’t do it by themselves anymore, physically or emotionally; they have to place Walker in a home.

The first part of the book is biographical: Walker’s and their history, what they did and how they did it. The second half is spiritual and philosophical: what is the meaning of Walker’s limited life? What is the meaning of anyone with a mental handicap? What do they teach the rest of the population? The author gives us a history of how the mentally handicapped and mentally ill have been treated in the past- for the most part, horribly. He spends a good deal of time with the people of a group of communities called L’Arche, founded by Vanier in France forty years ago and extending into Canada and the USA now. In these small communities, the mentally handicapped are treated as the norm. They and their care givers have meals together, go out into the towns, and are all equals. It’s a fairly ideal situation, and there is a twenty year waiting list for people to get into these communities. The home that Walker is in isn’t quite as good as L’Arche, but it’s pretty good. Brown also makes great efforts to medically understand Walker’s disease; he has genetic tests done to try and get a positive diagnosis of CFD (he doesn’t) and an MRI to see what Walker’s brain looks like. He goes from place to place, trying to find out how Walker works, whether Walker has any sense of self. He keeps hoping that there is some way to ‘fix’ Walker.

In the end, Brown really gets no answers. Walker has made his father into a different person that he was before- less selfish, more attuned to others, more appreciative of his friends and family, and, finally, a person who has to accept that Walker cannot be fixed, he can only be loved for who he is. If he has a ‘purpose’, other than to just live, if may be that.

The book is, frankly, pretty grim. No matter how much love there is, taking care of someone who is severely handicapped is hard work and it’s very hard on families. That they were able to keep Walker home for over 10 years is testament to their devotion. But despite its grimness, the book is a well written meditation of what it means to have a family member with a mental disability.
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Jul 10, 2012 AJ rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, health-medicine, bio-memoir

This was featured at the library so I thought I would pick it up. I enjoyed it, but didn't think it was great.

I really appreciated the author's thorough honesty when he talked about raising a severely disabled son. His son is incredibly delayed in nearly every way (though he can walk) and requires 24 hours a day care. The author chronicles what it was like raising him for 10 years (he went to a residential home at 10 and was 13 when the book was published). It is thoroughly exhausting reading wh...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ian Brown's smart, insightful portrait of what it feels like to be a father to a severely disabled child, in this case Walker Brown, born with CFC, an extremely rare but devastating genetic mutation. Also: an exhaustive, exhausting look at what you actually have to DO, all day every day, if your son is as physically challenged as Walker, who, at age 10, can't chew or swallow (and so must be fed through a tube in his stomach), can't speak, needs diapers, and who, if left to his own devices, would...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ian Brown shares his experiences with and attempts to understand his severely disabled son, Walker, who was born with an extraordinarily rare genetic condition called CFC. The book is haunting, intriguing, searing when i least expected it, and more than a little meandering; Brown wanders far afield in his attempts to figure out what makes his son - unable to talk, unable to sign, prone to screaming and self-mutilation, with a tiny, twisted, bent and furrowed body - a person of value. Brown usher...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Eric Kibler rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ian Brown (not to be confused with the Stone Roses front man) is a Canadian journalist and radio personality. He and his wife Johanna (also a writer) have two children, Hayley and Walker. Walker has CFC, a genetic syndrome that renders him developmentally disabled, unable to talk, and subject to a raft of health problems.

Brown's book is a memoir of the difficulty of raising his son, a rumination on the history of the care (or lack of same) of the mentally retarded (and yes, Brown uses that word)...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Judith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I picked up this book from the library display. This is a beautifully written memoir by a father of a son with a genetic disease (CFC). It covers the experiences, the challenges, the joy, the science, the disability policies, the spiritual aspects, the moral implications (and lack thereof of all of the above). Unless you experience it yourself, you can't begin to imagine the hardship, and how much things are slowly changing, in the disabled community. Of course most of us would not want to exper...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A beautiful, heart-wrenching book -- really something special. Ian Brown is a Canadian journalist whose son, Walker, was born with an incredibly rare genetic mutation that left him severely physically and cognitively disabled; in this memoir Brown describes life with Walker (difficult, stressful, exhausting, joyful), researches the science behind the disorder (don't worry, nothing too technical, and easily digestible), and discusses society's attitudes toward the profoundly disabled -- including...more

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May 31, 2011 Nina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

During my reading of this quite excellent book, I kept asking my physician husband if he'd ever heard of CFC syndrome, Costello syndrome, Noonan syndrome, and other genetic disorders that are discussed in the book. He had never heard of it. These disorders are that rare--a one in a million misfire of one genetic footprint.
I have a lot of respect for the author, Ian Brown, even though I usually feel people who write books like this are capitalizing on their situation in some way. I think his moti...more

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May 19, 2011 Ernie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A writer describes the effects on his family and life when he and his wife have a child with a rare genetic disorder, cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome (CFC). The condition is so rare that only tens of individuals are known with the disorder in the 90s. HIs son is profoundly developmentally retarded. No speech. Cognition not expected to advance beyond the comparative age of 2 or 3. The physicians have difficulty diagnosising it. Since it is so rare, predictions based are effects in others are weak....more A writer describes the effects on his family and life when he and his wife have a child with a rare genetic disorder, cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome (CFC). The condition is so rare that only tens of individuals are known with the disorder in the 90s. HIs son is profoundly developmentally retarded. No speech. Cognition not expected to advance beyond the comparative age of 2 or 3. The physicians have difficulty diagnosising it. Since it is so rare, predictions based are effects in others are weak. It is genetic but not inherited; the cause is a mutation occuring during early embryonic development. Later in the book they describe studies to find the genes responsible and the mutations responsible. Rare conditions are poorly funded. Spontaneous mutations mean that every case is likely to be different, and therefore requires more testing.
The first part of the book describes the discovery of the problem and its effect on the family. They adapt. But it is a profound adaptation. The author does a wonderful job describing the combination of love for his son, guilt when he finds himself longing for a normal life, guilt wondering if he is doing enough, joy at simple communication and pleasures with his son and difficulties sharing him with outside facilities when the son becomes too much for he and his wife to care for.
The last part of the book is an exploration of the work of such handicapped people. He discovers different types of homes for the developmentally handicapped and discusses what it means to him as a caring parent. He discovers a community called "L'Arche" (French for Ark, as in Noah and the...). In this community, ... you will have to read it. He is a writer and describes it much better. But it is the most interesting aspect of the book. The philosophy of L'Arch and its founder, Jean Vanier centers around creation of a community rather than institutional care-taking. But what has the most profound effect on the writer of the book is to discover that the questions asked by the residents (they are not called patients)upon meeting someone new is, "Do you like me? Will you be my friend?" (less)

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May 13, 2011 Corri rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I considered giving this book a lower rating, then realized that I wasn't seeing the forest for the trees. I was quibbling with the accuracy of some of the medical/genetic information that Brown presented; I had no questions, though, with the depth of thought and feeling and the eloquence in which he conveys them in this memoir about being the father of a profoundly disabled child.

Every special needs child and family has a unique journey. Different family circumstances, different limitations and...more

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Apr 05, 2011 Jacqui rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science, biography

Ian Brown's memoir, The Boy in the Moon (St. Martin's Press 2011), is an eye-opening trip into parenting a special needs child. In this case, Ian Brown and his wife have a severely disabled child with an orphan disease (one which is not studied or researched much), making both diagnosing and dealing with the disease difficult. This particular disease, CFC (cardiofaciocutaneous disease) is extremely rare, gets worse as the child matures and can't be cured. The story deals primarily with the Dad's...more

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Oct 19, 2009 Louise rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biographies

What an eye-opener this biography is. Ian Brown's search to find out who his son is, why he's here, what his purpose is, what his disability means and who he will become, is at times a sad, soul-searching, and profoundly wrenching journey. Yet, it's a lesson in unconditional love, acceptance of the things we can't change, and the courage to face the inevitable. Ian and his wife struggle to make sense of the terrible genetic syndrome that has stricken their son from the day he was born. So rare i...more What an eye-opener this biography is. Ian Brown's search to find out who his son is, why he's here, what his purpose is, what his disability means and who he will become, is at times a sad, soul-searching, and profoundly wrenching journey. Yet, it's a lesson in unconditional love, acceptance of the things we can't change, and the courage to face the inevitable. Ian and his wife struggle to make sense of the terrible genetic syndrome that has stricken their son from the day he was born. So rare is cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome, otherwise known as CFC, that no one really knows the true number of children affected by this horrible condition. Having children of my own, I can't even begin to imagine what this type of condition can do to you as a person, as a wife, a mother, a friend, a co-worker and all the other aspects of the people we must be on a daily basis and on your family unit as a whole. I give Mr. Brown and his wife alot of credit for what they have done for their precious son, Walker.

From dust jacket:

"Ian Brown's son Walker, was born with a genetic mutation so rare that doctors call it an orphan syndrome: perhaps a hundred people around the world live with it. At twelve, Walker is still in diapers; he is globally delayed, he can't speak and he has to wear cuffs on both his arms so that he won't constantly hit himself. Yet those details don't capture him. Despite the turmoil and pain of his life, Walker still delivers to the world moments of joy so intense they seem supernatural.

In Brown first wrote about his son in a series for the Globe and Mail, which drew an unprecendented reader response. But the Globe series only scratched the surface of what Brown needed to know and needed to say about his son. As he writes: "What is the value of a life like this-a life lived in the twilight, and often in pain? What is the cost of his life to those around him?...Sometimes watching Walker is like looking at the moon: you see the face of the man in the moon, yet you know there's actually no man there. But if Walker is so insubstantial, why does he feel so important. What is he trying to show me?"

The answers are hard-won and haunting. Brown describes the life Walker lives and the way he and his family help him live it, first at home, and later in a special group house for disabled children. He travels the continent to speak to gene scientists and to meet other children with the syndrome, shocked every time by their physical resemblance to his son. He tries to imagine a future for an adult Walker, and as a result travels to L'Arche, the community Jean Vanier founded in France, to speak with Vanier and to see for himself a place where disabled adults are not shunted onto the sidelines but embraced by "normal" others. He meets with neurologists to peer at scans of Walker's brain, searching for causes and not really finding them: on that front, Walker remains a mystery. Brown never shies away from the humour or the intense pathos of life with Walker. With the tender imagination and stark honesty Brown brings to the writing, the quality that infuses his book is love; for this amazing boy, for his family and for life. As much as this book is about one frail boy and the tiny constellation of people who surround him, it is also about all of us who try so hard to be parents worthy of our children."

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Aug 19, 2011 Mia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"The purpose of intellectually disabled people like Walker might be to free us from the stark emptiness of the survival of the fittest."

Of course no person needs a purpose to justify their existence (how quickly one arrives at 'useless eaters' w/ such logic), still I was moved by Brown's work to understand his son's life and the life of the disabled generally. Several thinkers that I admire suggest that dis-ability is really our given state, the human state, and times of strength and independenc...more

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Aug 12, 2010 Mrsgaskell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library, nonfiction, bookclub, 8-star

This was a book club selection and probably not a book I would have chosen myself. Initially I found Brown’s account of his son Walker’s condition (cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome) and the family’s life with a severely handicapped child very disjointed. CFC is a rare condition (100 cases worldwide) caused by a genetic mutation. Symptoms vary but include facial dysmorphia, skin irregularities, heart murmurs and malformations. Walker cannot speak, he is moderately retarded, has difficulty swallowing...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Rebecca Holland rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ian Brown, The Boy In the Moon, ISBN 978-03-12-6754-7, St. Martin's Griffin: Ian Brown is an author/a feature Imagewriter for the Globe and Mail. He is an award winning journalist/author.

One would think that he would be well-versed in many subjects, and able to meet challenges head on.

You would think that. Meet Walker Brown, Ian's son who was born with CFC (cardiofaciocutaneous) syndrome. And you will know that Ian Brown doesn't know everything - and he admits it.

Life with Walker as Ian honestly...more

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Feb 08, 2012 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

The Boy in the Moon is only saved from being a waste of a pity-fest by Brown's skillful prose, his ability to create quick and easy anecdotes.

Notes:

The pain and cyclical hell of sleepless night and the difficulty of raising a disabled child are starkly portrayed here. Brown's privilege is shown by Walker's nurse, the family's frequent vacations and the relative ease of the rest of his life. It's almost a relief when Brown brings up the possibility of Walker living in a group home; it almost excu...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Skylar Hatfield rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Reading this book will open your eyes to the experiences of families with a disabled child. Even if you work with disabled children, your eyes will be opened to the extremities of emotion and exhaustion that these families experience. You will come to understand how marriages dissolve in the crucible of this type of parenthood. You become baffled and frustrated by the struggles to obtain diagnosis, treatments, and respite.

Reading this book gave me a greater appreciation for my faith. The author...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Sarah Martinez rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Absolutely brilliant, wrenching and moving account. The main message I'll take from this book is that the profoundly disabled deserve respect and admiration for the life they're living. These people don't simply exist as "life lessons" for the so-called normal among us. Yes, they remind us normal folks of how much we have, our abundant blessings, etc., etc. It's the first thought that occurs to me, honestly. And most everyone else. But step back. Look at the unbelievable selfishness and hubris u...more

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Jan 11, 2012 Brent marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Last year I chose 15 books from the New York Times 100 notable books of 2010 list. So far I've read 5 of them with reactions ranging from absolute hatred to tepid amusement. I can resist trying it again though, so this is my list of 15 books from the NYT notable books of 2011 list that I picked to add to my reading list:

Angel Esmeralda -- Don Delillo
Leftovers -- Tom Perrotta
Buddha In The Attic -- Julie Otsuka
The Last Werewolf -- Glen Duncan
Mr. Fox -- Helen Oyeyemi
Come On All You Ghosts -- Matthe...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Zachary Zhao rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction-others

This is the true story of a father whose son (Walker) has one of the rarest genetic diseases that affects slightly more then 300 children around the world. As the father continues to grapple with his son's handicap and tries to make sense of his son's inner world, he also takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery.

It is hard for the reader to find the appropriate response to a story like this. The father is certainly not inviting pity as he shares his struggles with taking care of his son a...more

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Apr 12, 2010 Esther rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir-biography, non-fiction, favorites

I highly recommend this book. Ian Brown writes so well that I forgot about the writing. This is a book about his handicapped son Walker. Again, Brown's writing skill is such that he could bring the reader up close, right into his nightly routine with his son, and then throughout the rest of the book explore every angle of the question of his son's life - genetics, medical support, schooling, therapies, the extreme pressures of caring for a handicapped child, the guilt of realizing it has become...more

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Mar 18, 2010 Jennifer D. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian, non-fiction

Following, a review by Rachel Giese, from The Walrus, which sums up my thoughts and feelings far better than I could express.

"In his affecting new book, Globe and Mail journalist Ian Brown sets himself the awesome task of measuring the value of human life—specifically that of his profoundly disabled thirteen-year-old son, Walker. The boy was born with a genetic mutation called cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome, referred to by experts as an “orphan syndrome” because its occurrence is so random and ra...more Following, a review by Rachel Giese, from The Walrus, which sums up my thoughts and feelings far better than I could express.

"In his affecting new book, Globe and Mail journalist Ian Brown sets himself the awesome task of measuring the value of human life—specifically that of his profoundly disabled thirteen-year-old son, Walker. The boy was born with a genetic mutation called cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome, referred to by experts as an “orphan syndrome” because its occurrence is so random and rare. Walker is small—he weighs just sixty-five pounds—and globally delayed. He can’t feed himself, he barely communicates, and he functions at the level of a two-year-old.

There are no ribbon campaigns or telethons for sufferers of CFC and very little medical knowledge about the condition; it’s only since the arrival of the Internet that a small support network of families has coalesced. Brown and his wife, journalist Johanna Schneller, muddle through—epically sleep deprived and battle scarred from Walker’s vicious tantrums—with the help of a miracle-worker nanny and a series of doctors, therapists, and support caregivers, none of whom offer much hope that their son’s situation will ever improve.

Brown expanded the story from a series of articles first published in the Globe. Even with the most intimate material, he maintains his reporter’s discipline and impartiality, a rigour that makes the storytelling still more intimate. His accounts of his attempts to connect with Walker, and to be a good father, are at once tender and resolutely unsentimental. “Walker had given my life shape, possibly
even meaning,” he writes. “But Walker had also made our lives hell.”

The boy’s needs strain Brown’s finances and his marriage. (“The grit of resentment lay like a fine dust over everything,” he writes of his relationship with Schneller.) And in the zero-sum game of contemporary child rearing, he is beset by guilt for not being enough of a “disability warrior” for his son, and by fears that other parents view him as a failure.

Yet raising Walker also offers Brown extraordinary moments of grace: the visceral pleasure of sharing a bath or holding hands; the wisdom of a kind-hearted doctor who likens Walker’s condition to the Buddhist idea of “pure being”; and the heartbreaking decency of friends who “tried to reach down into our darkness and hold us.”

Given the current glut of smug daddy blogs and cutesy mommy memoirs, it’s bracing to read a story about parenthood in which there is something so extraordinary at stake. Here, Brown and Schneller grapple with whether to place Walker in a group home. It feels like a betrayal to send him away, but the level of care he requires is simply too much for them to manage. To sort out his feelings, Brown embarks on a journey to meet other families of children with CFC—a narrative device that at times feels forced. And after a visit to a Christian community of disabled people in France, he finds something like peace. It doesn’t come from the group’s beliefs, which he respects but does not share. Rather, it lies in himself: “I have begun simply to love [Walker:] as he is, because I’ve discovered I can.”

I rate this book 4 stars.(less)

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Feb 18, 2013 Alexandra rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

Ian Brown's book appealed to me very much because he is so brutally honest about the experiences, the obstacles, the daily frustrations and joys that come from living with a severely-disabled family member. The stories Brown shares about his son's life mirrors that of my own sibling's-- right down to members from the tight-knit community of doctors, social workers, and organizations that help people like Walker. More broadly, "The Boy in the Moon" provides a valuable antidote view to the hastily...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Allison Herman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read about this book in a magazine and was drawn to it. It's the true story of a man struggling with his son's illness. He was born with a very rare condition - Cardio-Facio-Cutaneous Syndrome, or CFC. At age 12 he is unable to speak, still wears diapers, and has to wear restraints in order to control his self-hitting. It's heartbreaking to read about the struggles the author, Ian Brown, goes through.

I enjoyed getting to know Brown's son Walker through the book. I thought his father did a wond...more

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Sep 10, 2011 Ellen Campbell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A beautifully written book by a father searching for meaning, The Boy in the Moon is one of the most lyrical books I have read about the journey to acceptance for a parent of a child with a disability. As a mother of a grown son with an intellectual disability, I know this path and I know this father's urgency as he travels it. Brown's son Walker has cardiofaciocutaneous (CFC) syndrome, a condition so rare that this father literally searches the world over seeking answers to all his questions. I...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Margaret Depaula rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read an article somewhere (do not remember where) about this book and I wrote the name & author down. I have worked in special education for over 20 years and I have had the pleasure to meet and work with many wonderful children. Some of them were born with very rare syndromes but I had never heard of or worked with a child that was diagnosed with CFC, a syndrome so rare that there are only about 100 living in the entire world. This book is the moving, honest and tender story about a boy n...more

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Mar 26, 2012 Jeannette rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a remarkable memoir by a father on raising his severely disabled son (born with a rare genetic defect).

In his efforts to understand his son, his path reflects on the place of disability in our society, even to reflections on our humanity and the worth of diversity in the human condition, no matter how abled or disabled. At a certain point the couple made the difficult decision to put their son in an assisted living facility. But it is the kind of place where he can live as a peer with h...more

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About Ian Brown

A Canadian journalist and author.

He is currently the host of Human Edge and The View from Here on TVOntario, and has hosted programming for CBC Radio One, including Later the Same Day, Talking Books, and Sunday Morning.

He has also worked as a business writer at Maclean's and the Financial Post, a feature reporter for The Globe and Mail, and a freelance journalist for other magazines including Satu...more

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title link	preview: The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son
avg rating	preview: The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son Goodreads rating: 3.84 (854 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5151818-the-boy-in-the-moon?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320442940l/5151818.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5151818-the-boy-in-the-moon?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son by Ian Brown[/url]

The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son

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