Summary and Reviews of Spinning Straw by Phyllis Green

Book Summary

The story of a family in crisis as they struggle to cope with their son's SIB attacks (self-injury), and find help for this otherwise incredibly happy, loving child.

"Mama, Mama, he's hitting himself! His HEAD, Mama, Jeff is HITTING HIMSELF-..." Whirling so fast the skillet skidded noisily to the edge of the stove, I looked toward the dinette and...froze. My beautiful two-year- old was slamming his head against the hard- wood, again and again -...

So Patricia Apple, in the early pages of Spinning Straw, describes her son's first episode of life-long self injury (SIB). Spinning Straw chronicles the life and heart of Jeff, who couldn't stop hurting himself. Diagnosed by various medical experts as autistic, developmentally disabled, severely retarded and suffering from extreme SIB - Jeff's family was able to see the beautiful, happy, loving child that existed behind all these disabilities. This is the story of a family in crisis as they struggled to cope with Jeff's attacks, and find help for this otherwise incredibly happy, loving child.

At times, the story-telling is almost clinical in detail, but this is tempered by first hand accounts of Jeff's SIB attacks, which are written in seemingly scattered thoughts and sentence fragments that place the reader right in the middle of the action. Patricia Apple tells the story, but Phyllis Green's writing has moved this telling into the realm of literature.

Once I started reading, I couldn't put Spinning Straw down. I read the entire book in two sittings - in the midst of the madness of preparations for Christmas and a houseful of out-of-town family.

The story of the Apple family's life with Jeff, as told by Patricia Apple to Phyllis Green, is a sensitive, yet not at all sentimental account. This book goes way beyond the message thing. I think it forces the reader to begin to look at people with special needs in a different light - to see them as human beings capable of giving so much: love, happiness and their own special way of looking at a world that the rest of us tend to take for granted. This book should be mandatory reading for those in decision-making positions, to help them treat children and adults facing extraordinary challenges with compassion, understanding, and love.