In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.
In honor of her son Isaac and all others with special needs, [Monica] Mangiacapra wrote the book "Different by Design." The scripturally based picture book helps explain disabilities to children.
She was inspired in part by her own experiences, she said. After their son's birth, Mangiacapra and her husband were suddenly thrust into the world of parenting a child with special needs.
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It was Psalm 139, she said, that would become the backbone of her book.
Even before she left the hospital, Mangiacapra began to look for "a book with scripture, but also related to disability" that was not trying to push any other sort of ideological agenda, and was not focused only on physical differences.
The message of the book is that "we are all different, just as God designed," even if those differences are a disability.
The book features illustrations that "represent as many visible and invisible disabilities," she said, including autism and communication disorders.
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The new book "Different by Design" is available on Amazon or at Mangiacapra's website, "A Joyful Advocate."
Psalm 139:13-15 (NIV)
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
