You can call me Ellie

"You can call me Ellie" by Anne McCullagh Rennie
When Jim and Anne Rennie's first child Patsy was two years old, Jim nearly died of cancer.Jim and Anne never expected to have a second child. Two years later, Ellie was born.
Diagnosed at birth with Down Syndrome, enrolled in Macquarie University aged four months, this is her story.You can call me Ellie is about courage, persistence and at times downright stubborn refusal to budge as Ellie battles to prove that she is an individual with the ability to achieve beyond all expectations.

I've just read this book and it is great. It is a true story of an Australian family who's daughter is born in the 70's with Down syndrome. It is a really uplifting and positive book.

Do you ever stop reading


sounds like a great book

Tell me your secret to finding time that's quiet enough to read!!! I can just picture you know, lying on the couch with your book while Amarli plays quietly beside you

Cas

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I can just picture you know, lying on the couch with your book while Amarli plays quietly beside you

I wish.
I dont read of a day at all, but as i dont real well, i :study: at night . If its a good book it will only take me a couple of days, so i suppose books are my addiction, that and this

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sounds like a great book

It really is, and i liked it because it was about an Aussie family and not like "Tuesdays Child" this family never focused on the negative and they never expressed any self pity.

Yes I liked this book too - I think it inspired me to consider music for Hannah - and one day when she is older I might investigate the suzuki mehtod of teaching as opposed to others for her if she wants to learn an instrument.

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I think it inspired me to consider music for Hannah - and one day when she is older I might investigate the suzuki mehtod of teaching as opposed to others for her

Yeh i was thinking the same thing too.
Shelly have you read "Expecting Adam"? Ive just sent it up to Adensmummy (Cathy) to read and was going to post about it when she's read it.

I can see I am going to have to start reading. I used to read a book in a night but now it takes me weeks. Seems that once I get to bed I manage to read for about 2 minutes before I fall asleep. Comes from constant sleep deprivation I think. I haven't slept through the night since early in my pregnancy with Talitha so that makes it over 3 years since I have slept through the night. Now I only get up 3 or 4 times during the 6 or 7 hours I manage to be in bed and Talitha is in with me for about 5 of those hours tossing and turning and tangling me and her in her tubing, waking me every 10 minutes or so ........now, why do you think I fall asleep when I try to read. Gotta get this kid eating so I can get some sleep and read a book or twenty. I am making a list. Are these books available from regular book shops? If anyone has a good one lying around and everyone else has read it feel free to throw it my way

I have Tuesday's Child sitting here laying to waste...

Cas

caspearson wrote:

I have Tuesday's Child sitting here laying to waste...

Cas

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If anyone has a good one lying around

I was thinking the same but got stuck thinking did it qualify
i should at least finish the book before I say such nasty things

I have read Expecting Adam - unfortunately it was when the hormones were well under way - I wanted another baby!! That book is all about pregnancy! So I cried and cried while reading it - still I did like it and thought I might like to read it again one day. Copy of Tuesday's Child and 'Defiant Births' here - but I don't really think they qualify either. I borrowed Ellie from the local library and Expecting Adam from DSA NSW's library. Memory Keepers Daughter and Gifts would be my first 2 pics for reading - although I am hoping to get around to ordering Roadmap to Holland by J GrafGroneberg some day soon.

Shelly did you read Expecting Adam before you had the twins? I hated the book i dont know really what it was, it took me so long to finish it and then i had to force myself. I hated the words she used and the way she over exaggerated everything. Heaps of people said they liked it maybe it was just me
Ive read the others too and have just ordered Road Map to Holland, I'm starting another at the moment called Lives touched by Down syndrome, its sort of like Gifts.
Karyn what kind of books do you like to read? I have heaps here.

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It really is, and i liked it because it was about an Aussie family and not like "Tuesdays Child" this family never focused on the negative and they never expressed any self pity.

Thank god- I have a friend who let me borrow Tuesdays Child and I have read a bit of it but spent most of it in tears as it was soooooo negative. I thought I was just being over-sensitive. I have stopped reading it and haven't been able to pick it back up

I actually haven't read any books about people with DS. I have read a few of the stories in Gifts but that is it. I think I would like to read a few of them even if they are negative. There is a lady here who has a son with DS and CP and she is very negative. Maybe I would be able to understand her better. Cas, if you want to send Tuesday's child my way I will give it a go. Let me know and I will pm my address. Can reimburse you for postage if you want. Wouldn't have a clue what it would cost.

Kat I agree with you about the Tuesday's Child book. I was ecstatic when I received it as a gift from one of my friends and after getting halfway through it and giving the author chapter after chapter to redeem herself and actually sound like she loved her daughter it never happens. I too thought that I may have been oversensitive so I gave the book to my sister to read without telling her that I think it was too negative and she can't finish it as it is too negative. You can call me Ellie on the other hand was fantastic. Although there are tough times, the Rennie family stick together and challenge the schooling system and societies expectations of people with DS and love their daughter/sister unconditionally, like the way families are supposed to be.

I am reading "You can call me Ellie" at the moment, loaned to me by the lovely Amarlismum. I am really enjoying it. Some of it gives me pause, as it brings into stark relief what I may face in the future with Georgia, and that is a bit scary, but it is also very inspiring. That family has exactly the right attitude to Ellie. When Anne (Ellie's mother) was relaying the story of her birth and the first days afterward, and what she felt, quite a few times I have literally gasped out loud, because it is like she was in my HEAD. It's spooky! I have given myself a couple of nights break, as I needed it, but I am ready to get back into it now