Jennifer Shaw
Carpenters Son Publishing, 2012, 240 pp., $14.99
Top 40 Billboard recording artist Jennifer Shaw offers an atypical parenting saga in this faith-inspired memoir. Shaw, while her songs were climbing to the top of the Christian charts, also was juggling the many challenges of helping her son, Toby, a child with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). Any parent who has an autistic or SPD child will find comfort and support from this book.
Youth leaders, in particular, may be able to mine some rich illustrations here but also some practical help, especially those who may have autistic teenagers in their group. Better yet, the appendixes in this book provide a bullet-point overview of these disorders and a couple of wonderful interviews with leading experts in the fields of autism.
Teenagers who may be familiar with Shaw’s music or her many awards may enjoy learning more about her background and life as a parent—a picture that may help them complete a faith that can sustain them through hardships of their own and the dreams they are following. Leaders will enjoy having this book on their reference shelves for those young adults—perhaps including former teen leaders—who are now facing the enormous challenge of parenting.
