Author: Shirley Cheng

Publisher: Self Published by Author

ISBN: 1-4116-1860-2

Category: Autobiography

The following review was contributed by: S.V. SWAMY & CLICK TO VIEW S.V. Swamy's Reviews

The book with the rather long title is the story of
Shirley Cheng, an American girl (of Chinese descent),
who was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
when just 11 months old. Cared for by a loving,
courageous and spiritually strong mother, Shirley
overcomes all her physical challenges including being
confined to a wheelchair, loss of vision and constant
pain to realise her intellectual and artistic
potentials to a great extent.

The book is written in third person and reads more
like a social novel than an autobiography. The author
chose this particual format to probably maintain a
sense of objectivity and seems to have succeeded to
some extent. The book is written in a lucid, vivid and
flowing style and is easy to read. It may take the
reader a few days to read through because of the
number of pages. But it is certainly not boring and
the author holds the reader's attention all through.

The portrayal of the various people who played a
crucial role in Shirley's life has been well done and
the reader gets a fairly clear idea of the people
involved and the events. As is to be expected, Shirley
and her mother encounter a number of problems from
various people who are not able to understand the
special problems of Shirley and at the same time are
helped by some really kind souls.

The narration is moving at many places and at the same
is also inspiring because of the perseverance of
Juliet, Shirley's mother and Shirley herself. Their
problems with the US Medical, Social and School
systems evoke reader's sympathy. However, the same
system helps Shirley in several ways including her
getting a laptop computer with special software which
finally allows to read what she is typing. The
reviewer could empathise with several aspects of
Shirley's suffering. All in all, a good, inspiring
read.