Life Happens Next

VOYA - Pam Carlson

Shawn McDaniel fantasizes about his sister's best friend, Ally, and what it would be like if he ever got up the courage to tell her how he felt about her. This will never happen. He will never even be able to hold her hand due to his severe cerebral palsy. Readers first met Shawn in Stuck In Neutral (HarperTeen, 2001/Voya December 2000) and discovered that he had a perfect memory and a great intellect but not a perfect body. He also believed that his father probably wanted to kill him—a mercy killing, to put Shawn out of his "misery." Now he is fifteen, and his father has left the family. His mother is his caregiver, his brother and sister protect him, but everyone still believes his mind to be that of a vegetable. And then his mother's middle-aged cousin, Debi, moves in with them after the death of her parents. Debi has Down's syndrome and is often disruptive, but in her quiet moments she becomes the first person to connect with Shawn on more than a surface level. Knowing Debi leaves Shawn uncharacteristically hopeful about his future. Trueman's nonsympathetic first-person narrative is based upon his experiences with his own son's cerebral palsy, imagining what it would be like to be a genius trapped in an uncooperative body. There is no action, no gore, and no vampires, but this short tale may just sensitize teens to those around them who are physically challenged. Reviewer: Pam Carlson

Kirkus Reviews

Trueman skates the edge of fantasy as he puts readers' hearts through a workout in this sequel to Stuck in Neutral (2000). Shawn is completely locked out of his physical body by cerebral palsy, but inside he's a smart, sarcastic and (generally) emotionally stable 14-year-old. He takes up his narrative only days after surviving his well-meaning father's aborted mercy killing (Cruise Control, 2004) and hasty departure. He's already past that, though. Between rapturous affirmations that he's developed "over-the-top, teenaged-love-junkie, mac-daddy-extreme hotz" for his sister's BF Ally and more dispassionate descriptions of diaper changes, he notes with mixed feelings the arrival of his mother's cousin Debi, a newly orphaned adult with Down syndrome, and her large and excitable dog, Rusty. Inspired by real members of the author's family, Debi and Shawn are characters whose conditions are portrayed with credible accuracy--but who also display enough self-awareness, emotional range and human insight to lift them well past any sort of typecasting. On the other hand, unlike the rest of Shawn's loving family, Debi and even Rusty somehow turn out to be able to tell what's going on in his head, and in a further credulity-straining development, Debi shows up, disability free, in his dreams after a sudden loss. A winning central and supporting cast provide strong compensation for a plot that seems overly worked and too tidily resolved. (afterword) (Fiction. 11-14)

Children's Literature - Greta Holt

Shawn's father has tried to kill him once; at least Shawn is pretty sure of it. Shawn understands that his father wants to end his suffering, but Shawn wants to live. He dares to hope that someday he will be able to communicate as others do. At fifteen, Shawn sits in a wheelchair, wears diapers, and drools. Cerebral palsy has taken his ability to communicate, and no one knows that Shawn has a wonderful memory, that he thinks, and that he falls in love. Shawn loves the beautiful Ally, who is loved by his brother Paul. Shawn must watch helplessly as Paul courts Ally. His misery is compounded when Debi, a forty-one-year-old Down syndrome woman, comes home to live. Shawn must listen to his family assume that Debi will be a good friend for him. Debi brings a dog, which is terrifying to Shawn who has no ability to move away if the dog attacks. Debi is a trial, and she will not stop staring at Shawn. Trueman continues his story of horror and redemption in his second book about Shawn. After experiencing the expanded spiritual world that becomes available to Shawn, it is difficult for readers to view disabled people with mere pity. Reviewer: Greta Holt