The Spark

What is the next number in the sequence? You are in an anteroom with two doors leading out. What the hell are you people doing? Benowitz, I am an experienced writer with a background in digital media, an ardor for online publishing, and a proficiency in using Thesaurus. Until the novelist open mic, feeling bad about your writing in public was a right reserved for standup comics. BackFat Variety is a comedic. After removing your new Moneymaker from its carton, carton inserts, and polybags, we suggest that you save all packaging materials in case future shipping of.

Retrieved 21 September Retrieved 18 September Retrieved 22 September Enter Shikari - The Spark". The Spark review — innovative post-hardcore quartet push their boundaries". Fergie's Double Duchess a flawless fusion of hip hop and pop". Retrieved 24 September Retrieved 30 September Retrieved 5 October Retrieved 29 September Retrieved from " https: Now, admittedly some of my issues are because I am likely not Kristine's target audience.

First, I am currently working in public school special education. For all the side-stepping around her true feelings, it was quite clear that she does not respect SPED personnel. However, some of her issues could have been resolved with the public schools had she entered into meetings with a positive frame of mind along with her assertiveness, rather than the combative attitude her interactions seem to have taken.

Then, later, she makes it clear that her husband wanted his kids to experience the normal childhood he had, so home schooling was not an option. I home schooled my kids through high school - very successfully too. This kind of comment always makes me shake my head.

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Home schooled kids have plenty of opportunities to experience what kids in other schools experience, and perhaps more time and freedom to do so while parents tailor their educational needs to best fit them. What I really wanted to read about was what she did do - not just the struggles, but the successes. She mentions she had great success and gives a few individual examples, but, really, just in passing. If she is having such phenomenal success with helping autistic kids adjust, then this, along with the success story of her son, should have been the focus of this book.

There was a lot of repeating that play is important and that parents need to follow what kids are interested in - but most parents understand and do that already. Even most special ed programs do that. I had an advanced reading copy and so some of the errors and leaps in the book could have been corrected like going from jobless and broke to it's all A-okay again without much explanation , as well as some of the little snips like toward public school SPED. Perhaps I just need to admit that this story, as interesting and appealing as it is, simply isn't told in a manner that I can take seriously.

I think a good book could be found in Jake's story, but, for me, this wasn't quite it. Even with these complaints, The Spark is enjoyable and may help give other parents hope and ideas that might work with their children but don't expect too many new ideas. Other advanced readers are giving it all five stars, so my feelings likely are not going to be the norm here. Recommended I received an advanced reading copy of this book for review purposes. View all 3 comments. View all 5 comments.

Oct 13, Tabitha rated it it was ok. This was the first book I read after my son was diagnosed with autism in April this year. The book made my heart swell and gave me so much hope he would turn out like this young man. I have a voracious appetite for books and began reading everything I could consume on autism looking for a cure that doesn't exist.

Within weeks, I realized this story was a rare scenario and likely a misdiagnosis. Why I didn't give this book a higher review was because after the author and her son gained national This was the first book I read after my son was diagnosed with autism in April this year. Why I didn't give this book a higher review was because after the author and her son gained national fame, my friends and family started spamming me with this news and YouTube videos siting possible genius opportunities and a happy ending to our personal journey in autism.

It was then that I realized what the author had done to parents raising autistic children or caring for autistic adults ; the author had mislead readers and TV viewers. She had given the unassuming public a false belief about the real story of autism. She should have started her book and interviews prefacing that this brilliance and return-to-neurotypical was a rare outcome.

Even the YouTube videos that have gone viral should have given this primer before launching into documenting his genius. Any parent raising a child on the spectrum knows this child-turned-young man was not likely on the spectrum and was misdiagnosed in his early years. He was simply a genius and likely had a few attributes resembling ASD which mislead therapists and child psychologists.

Or he had High Functioning Aspergers and through rigorous early intervention therapy that somehow an impoverished household could afford Jacob was able to adopt neurotypical social behaviour. I admire his mother for taking her hand at the written word to tell his beautiful academic journey and I hope he achieves great things with his brilliant mind. She certainly has set the bar high for scrutiny and public opinion; that is a lot of pressure for any child.

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View all 4 comments. Nov 21, Daniel Field rated it it was ok. This book just annoyed me. Maybe it's because I've worked with many different students with autism and other special needs, or because I found the writing style to be annoying - simultaneously understated and over-exaggerated. And she most definitely didn't come up with the idea to use PECS with a child with autism for communication rather than just stroke patients. As someone who works with many professionals who work closely with students diagnosed with autism, I feel like this book gives the message that speech pathologists, occupational therapists, etc.

I do hope that Kristine's story is empowering, but it should most definitely not be the only text to read about parenting a child with exceptional needs. Feb 08, Megan rated it liked it Shelves: The author is not a career author or writer, she was a mom with an interesting story to tell, so I'll give her that. That being said though, the writing does grate on me. This book is a memoir so obviously it is told first person. I think if done right it can be fascinating to live out others' experiences and thoughts. She had a very bland writing style and told events that seemed very interesting in a very one note way.

To me that is an amazing and rare thing and yet she pretty much told it about just as blandly as I just did.

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This really made for a blah reading experience. I felt I knew what happened to their family, and their general outline of each of them as people. I didn't get lost in her life as I have in other memoirs. Everything she wrote felt very on the surface of things. Again, I know she is not a professional writer, but couldn't she have gotten some help to make it more detailed, personal, etc? I was also flat out baffled and annoyed by some of the decisions she made.

Their house is flooded and ruined, and they still have to sadly pay the mortgage on it. She is lamenting on how broke they are, which obviously sucks, but then they go and buy a brand new, amazing house. That was never really explained. Is she just a dip? I am only 26 but that seemed insane to me. Obviously that's her life choice so whatever, but definitely had me re-reading that line, then sitting there in stunned disbelief.

She was also a little self-righteous. There were times she brought up good qualities of hers or her family's and then would immediately do this sheepish, falsely humble thing. She kept dropping the fact how kind and generous they are. For example, they don't like to give gifts at Christmas and really focus on giving to the poor. I wouldn't begrudge anyone that. I think that is all an example we should aspire to. But I kind of feel the second you bring it up, it becomes less about the kind act and more about you. It would be one thing if these stories served a point to the narrative or if she was trying to educate others how to help a certain charity, but sometimes they seemed just completely mentioned for no reason other than to make her look better.

She was also very self-righteous about Jake's education. She was clearly right in some of the educational choices she made for him and I don't want to take away from that. I also think what she did with her special education day care was amazing, especially since she didn't seem to have a background in education--it took a lot of guts. There were also teachers and therapists who I couldn't believe in the book, Being a teacher, I can't imagine telling a parent to give up on a kid learning the alphabet or anything, really.

Students are so young and we have so much time to reach them! However, at times I thought she had a bad attitude. Worse than that, she could send the wrong message to any parents reading the book who are trying to find their own path in raising an autistic or special needs child. An IEP does not mean Jake is stupid.

It means he has specific needs social needs can be addressed there and programs put in place to help with thata problem she admitted he had?! She made them out to be a negative thing. It bothered me when she didn't give teachers a shot. Clearly Jake shouldn't have stayed with his age kids much longer, and I agree with him going to college. But I disagree with her holier than thou attitude over all the teachers in the book, and let's remember a lot of this was before he was found to be a genius.

The Spark by Kristine Barnett | www.newyorkethnicfood.com: Books

The star of the book is clearly Jake, and despite all my complaints, his story is why I am giving the book three stars. It is so fascinating to consider his mind and how incredibly quickly it progresses and masters things compared to ours. I really wish the book talked more about him than her and the whole family and the day care, as cruel as that sounds. There were parts of their family life that was interesting, but overall I just wanted more Jake. Either that, or she could've gotten help with her writing skills to improve the book as a whole.

That all being said, I would still recommend the book to anyone based on Jake's story. It is worth hearing. Aug 29, Kevin Farrell rated it liked it. Don't let the 3 star rating discourage you from reading this one. I will explain the rating below. This book is an amazing story about how a mother of an autistic boy fought the advice of medical experts and triumphed.

She was told her son would probably never read. She saw more in him than the experts could see and she sought to bring out the best in him. She also shared her "method" with other families with autistic children with very good results. Her son turned out to be an amazin Don't let the 3 star rating discourage you from reading this one. Her son turned out to be an amazing genius who was in grad school in Astro-Physics at the age of I wanted so much for this story to be about Jake Barnett - Autistic Genius. It was but, it was about much more. The story included how his Mom and Dad worked constantly to help find Jake when he was almost lost within himself.

So much of the story was about the obstacles that the entire Barnett family faced during Jake's Childhood. I agree that this is an important part of the story and could not be left out. However, early in the book I kept getting the sense that the story being told seemed out of proportion. I felt that I was being told a tall tale from time to time but I moved on. Then on page the chapter titled Dark Times described in detail how desperate things were for all families in Indiana during the start of the recession. The author Kristine Barnett describes a world that did not fit the facts.

She is writing about Indiana in A lot of people were out of work - that is true, still is. Her husband, Mike, lost his job and so did many in their neighborhood. Then there was this paragraph on page Many people around us burned old tables and chairs for heat.

A Mother’s Story of Nurturing, Genius, and Autism

A lot of people didn't have electricity, and the people who did weren't using it. Every house was dark. There were no lights on anywhere. I remember walking through Walmart, the aisles cleared of everything except necessities: The store didn't bother to stock anything else. It looked like an army surplus store. I am certain that this is what her world looked like in from her point of view. The rest of us could buy anything we wanted in Walmart because it was all there on the shelves.

I don't know of anyone who burned furniture. I live in Indiana in a neighborhood just like the one she described as her own. It was at this point in the book that I realized that the author is such an emotionally charged person that she can not simply state the facts with accuracy. Accuracy would not convey the emotion that she has in each memory, so she shapes the story to carry the emotions as well as the facts. I think that warping the facts in this case was distracting for me. I am sorry that the author found it necessary to write her story this way.

It is still a book that is very much worth reading. Barnett's success in helping autistic children is just as amazing as her mega-genius son. Jun 15, Jeri Vick rated it it was ok. Interesting story about a truly phenomenal young man. The author's persistently naive take on her son's extraordinary abilities, however, came off as a misguided and frequently irritating attempt at modesty.

The Spark: A Mother's Story of Nurturing Genius

Mar 20, Kath McStay rated it it was amazing. When I received an an advance copy of The Spark: I have read many of these books, and all of them have been inspiring, interesting and have been passed on to others who might have an interest in the topic. This book is more. If it were in my power to put it into When I received an an advance copy of The Spark: If it were in my power to put it into the hands of every person on the planet, I would do so.

Parents, children, teachers, neighbors, friends of families who have received this daunting news need to know about this boy, and his family. His mother was gently told to take away his alphabet cards, because they were really worried about him learning to simply tie his shoes, or even to speak. Sadly, I have seen families who received similar news and believed it. Even more sadly I have seen educators buy into the myth that children with autism are the autism, and often unteachable.

I have even seen teachers expect a child with autism to "get over" their individual sensitivities and "get used" to teaching methods that would put many typical children into a tailspin. Bright flickering lights, loud voices in a classroom, and the expectation that all children learn in the same way. This is not true for any child, typical or one with a diagnosis. We are individuals, and we have individual ways of learning. This small detail eludes far too many experts and educators. In this way, we are often failing our children.

One extraordinary woman, from an extraordinary family was able to look at her own small boy, and know in her heart, her soul and in every way possible that the so called experts were wrong. She pulled her son from the special need classroom to which he had been assigned. The one with the teacher who had a sympathetic smile.

And she changed his world. Furthermore, she changed the world for many, many other children who faced similar obstacles to those faced by her little boy. Kristine is just a mom, a mom with passion and love and great expectations. She her husband and family don't have a lot of money, and they didn't even have a lot of help, particularly in the beginning. But they did have passion, and they believed in their son, their family and in each other. Kristine also had instincts, good ones, and enough faith in herself to follow them. And she made miracles happen. MIracles within her own family and for other families, too.

And she made things happen agains such insurmountable seeming odds, that I dare say that you will have a new perspective on a bad day once you have read her story. Not every Child is a Jacob Barnett. He has an IQ that is higher than that of Albert Einstein. So not every child with a diagnosis will reach the same heights as Jake. But Kristine has the unique ability, the empathy to find the passion in others. The spark that will set them on their own pat to success.

She also has the wisdom to know that love and family, time and play are vital to these, and to every family. Feb 06, Crystal rated it really liked it Shelves: This book turned out to be so much more than I thought it would be This book takes following a 'mother's gut' to a whole new level.

I will definitely look at my children in a different light, and in the future I plan to find ways to guide them that may not necessarily be 'mainstream. I just hope I can find the r This book turned out to be so much more than I thought it would be I just hope I can find the right teachers to play along.

The Spark (song)

Jul 20, Erin rated it it was ok. Very turned off by the overly dramatic beginning. Once I muddled through that, I just got s false sense of importance. I wish they would have detailed the extraordinary child rather than the mother. Feb 20, Laura rated it it was ok. I would like to give caution before reading this book. The story of the son, Jacob, is compelling and unique. The problem is that story focuses more on the mother.