Schuyler's Monster: A Father's Journey with His Wordless Daughter | 
| Author: Robert Rummel-hudson
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 31598
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.2
ISBN: 0312372426
Dewey Decimal Number: 618.92
EAN: 9780312372422
ASIN: 0312372426
Publication Date: February 19, 2008
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Product Description
Schuyler’s Monster is an honest, funny, and heart-wrenching story of a family, and particularly a little girl, who won't give up when faced with a monster that steals her voice but can’t crush her spirit.
When Schuyler was 18 months old, a question about her lack of speech by her pediatrician set in motion a journey that continues today. When she was diagnosed with Bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria (an extremely rare neurological disorder caused by a malformation of the brain.), her parents were given a name for the monster that had been stalking them from doctor visit to doctor visit and throughout the search for the correct answer to Schuyler's mystery. Once they knew why she couldn’t speak, they needed to determine how to help her learn. They didn’t know that Schuyler was going to teach them a thing or two about fearlessness, tenacity, and joy.
Schuyler’s Monster is more than the memoir of a parent dealing with a child’s disability. It is the story of the relationship between a unique and ethereal little girl floating through the world without words, and her earthbound father who struggles with whether or not he is the right dad for the job. It is the story of a family seeking answers to a child’s dilemma, but it is also a chronicle of their unique relationships, formed without traditional language against the expectations of a doubting world. It is a story that has equal measure of laughter and tears. Ultimately, it is the tale of a little girl who silently teaches a man filled with self-doubt how to be the father she needs. Schuyler can now communicate through assistive technology, and continues to be the source of her father's inspiration, literary and otherwise.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
Heart-breaking and uplifting at the same time June 13, 2008
This is a story of tragedy, love and the humorous foibles of life. It is also expertly written, easily approachable and best of all, thoroughly enjoyable.
I initially wondered whether I'd walk away from it more forlorn than uplifted, but that wasn't the case. Schuyler, by simply being her beautiful, innocent self, proves that life does indeed go on, and that although pain might exist, so does joy, gratitude and hope.
Highly, highly recommended.
Great Book June 11, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I really liked this book after finding via "others buy" on Amazon from another memoir. Its well written, engaging, and interesting. The only thing I am not sure about is the monster metaphor. I'd hate for that little girl to think she has a monster in her. That would have terrified me as a kid. I get the metaphor, but its not so much a menacing third party in her brain as a malformation (nicely- genetic road less taken!) that makes her very unique. It's a great story anyway- I wish her and her family all the best.
Outstanding Memoir of Fatherhood - not a "Blog Book!" June 9, 2008
I'd been reading Rob Rummel-Hudson's blog for a long time when I bought Schuyler's Monster, so I pretty much knew Schuyler's story. All the same, I couldn't put the book down. It's a terrific, well-structured memoir; not bloggy at all, definitely not recycled, and it digs deep into topics that will be new and suprising to even the most regular of Rob's blog readers.
It's a little different from some memoirs about childhood medical challenges, because the focus is just as much on fatherhood, and what it means to be Schuyler's parent, as it is on Schuyler herself. Rather than being a look inside the world of a wordless child, it's a look at what it takes to give a wordless child the right, and the words, to live in the same world as her parents. For this reason I think it's a treasure for any parent of a special-needs child, but it's also a good read for anyone involved in or contemplating parenthood.
Amazing book---both extremely readable and extremely honest May 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A friend of mine, a fellow traveller on what the author hilariously calls "The slow boat to Amsterdam" (if you have a child with special needs, you'll get it!) read this book first, and told me she couldn't go to sleep before finishing it. She gave it to me, and the same thing happened---a very rare thing in a household where everyone prefers to wake at 5am, so we go to sleep early!
This book has so much than many books about a child with special needs don't have. It's funny, laugh out loud funny sometimes. It's honest---no saint parents here, but the love, unconditional, strong enough to almost kill you, love comes through the pages so well. It's hopeful but realistic, and it's sad and also extremely happy and triumphant about the prospects for a child with a monster in their brain, and I do love that term.
I think my favorite thing about this book is that the author and his wife are NOT RICH. I don't know why it almost seems like a pre-requisite to writing a book about a child with special needs that the parents be very well off. The best example is when the parents decide Schuyler needs a $10,000 communication computer. The school district won't buy it. In so many books I've read, this would be dealt with by a passage something like "it was a bit of a stretch, but we knew how important it was and spent the money to get it". Well, for most of us, a bit of a stretch is getting the extra-large pizza instead of the large---spending $10,000 on a devise is not a stretch, it's impossible. The way people who didn't even know Schuyler came through to get the computer is one of the best reasons to not lose hope in the human race.
I have a daughter who is 3, and like Schuyler, has sometimes been diagnosed with autism, at other times, we've been told she certainly is not autistic, but no-one has a clue why she is the way she is. She talks, but in a very limited way, on her own terms. She sings long complicated songs but has never answered a yes or no question. She is an amazing girl. I sometimes just sit back and marvel at her, when I let myself. But I also cry often, and wish so much that I knew what her particular monster is. I want to thank the author from the bottom of my heart for putting some of my feelings to words.
 Don't Judge This Book, Or This Girl, By Its Cover May 18, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
100+ pages. That's how long it takes to find out just exactly what "Schuyler's Monster" is... unless of course you cheated and read the book jacket.
Robert Rummel-Hudson crafts a hauntingly beautiful story of unconditional love for a little girl he describes as "broken," shifting back and forth from moments of sheer frustration to simple pleasure, all of which are touching and heart-wrenching at the same time. Unfortunately "Schuyler's Monster" reads much more like a memoir of a father ill-equipped to deal with a special needs child than it does the journey of Schuyler herself, a tenacious and rambunctous pixie stuck in a world that prides itself on conformity (perhaps best then that Rummel-Hudson moved his family from the Stepford New Haven town to the much more accepting and diverse Austin!).
For those first hundred something pages, there is mention of the fact that Schuyler is different; she has trouble with potty-training, some motor skills, and she doesn't speak at all. However, the majority of the content there is dedicated to Rummel-Hudson, filled with anecdotes about his work and even his background and love of writing at a young age, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. His words are elegant, poetic, and real; each page feels like a personal conversation with the man and deep look into his psyche. It's just not what was expected from a book sub-tagged as "A Father's Journey With His Wordless Daughter."
Perhaps it is because Schuyler is still so young and has so much ahead of her that is still unknown, then, that she is almost a supporting player to Rummel-Hudson's growth within his book. Perhaps it is because while lacking in communication, he can't quite accurately document how she has been affected by her differences (he makes few assumptions and absolutely no judgments, which is refreshing coming from a father!). If anything, "Schuyler's Monster" certainly paints a clear picture as to just why this little girl is so remarkable; she has turned her father, the author, into a much better man simply by giving him something special on which to focus. I was just expecting a story that was a little more about the process of dealing with doctors, special needs classrooms, speech pathologists, and strangers who just didn't understand. "Schuyler's Monster" definitely touches on all of that, but for some reason I was expecting a little more... and for the telling to be a little less self-indulgent. Rummel-Hudson has been a writer since 1995, blogging about everything from his hometown to his little girl's diagnosis, and I guess at times this book seems to be a little more for him, a little more about him, than Schuyler and her monster. Perhaps it is fitting, then, because just like Schuyler herself, there is more to this book than meets the eye; it is not exactly what it seems to be, and you certainly can't judge it by its cover!
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