Miracle Boy Grows Up Audiobook By Ben Mattlin cover art

Miracle Boy Grows Up

How the Disability Rights Revolution Saved My Sanity

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Miracle Boy Grows Up

By: Ben Mattlin
Narrated by: Elijah Alexander
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No one thought Ben Mattlin would live past childhood. But that didn’t stop him.

Ben Mattlin lives a normal, independent life. Why is that interesting? Because Mattlin was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a congenital weakness from which he was expected to die in childhood. Not only did Mattlin live through childhood, he became one of the first students in a wheelchair to attend Harvard, from which he graduated and became a professional writer. His advantage? Mattlin’s life happened to parallel the growth of the disability rights movement, so that in many ways he did not feel that he was disadvantaged at all, merely different.

Miracle Boy Grows Up is a witty, unsentimental memoir that you won’t forget, told with engrossing intelligence and a unique perspective on living with a disability in the United States.

©2012 Ben Mattlin (P)2012 Audible, Inc. Art & Literature Authors Civil Rights & Liberties Disability Awareness Education Freedom & Security People with Disabilities Personal Development Personal Success Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences Specific Demographics Witty Disability Rights

Editorial reviews

If getting into Harvard sounds like an accomplishment, try getting into Harvard when you have spinal muscular atrophy and need an assistant for the most basic tasks, like tying your shoes or taking a shower. Ben Mattlin wasn't supposed to outlive his childhood, but as listeners come to find out - thanks in part to a warm and energetic performance by veteran narrator, Elijah Alexander - Mattlin not only makes it past childhood, but onto Harvard and into an accomplished writing career. Miracle Boy Grows Up is an amusing and unsentimental look at growing up not only with a life-altering disability, but growing up right in the middle of America's disability rights movement.
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this is a powerful work, not only about someone who discovered his identity as disabled and eventually flourished in it, but also a way of helping others do the same. much gratitude.

powerful

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I Enjoy hearing about his life. I wish there were more books like this one... ,& that it would be easier to find them ... the narrator did a great job I enjoyed listening to him .

Life Story

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