The Horse Boy by Rupert Isaacson

I don't usually write a review 66-pages into a book, but either the caffeine from my morning coffee has taken over (not unusual) or I am just too inspired to hold off until the end of the book. I want to believe it is inspiration.

When I was childbearing age, women just weren't very informed about all the things that could go wrong for our babies. Our biggest fear was that our child might be born with some type of physical deformity (i.e., the still-prevalent counting of fingers and toes at birth). Little did we know that the absence of an appendage was the least of our worries. Through massive public awareness, books, movies, and of course "Oprah," we now know more than we even want to about the seemingly endless list of disorders that can impact the life of a child and family - Autism being one of those. It's not that I don't want to know about Autism, I am in fact intrigued by, and have read a lot about Autism, which has not impacted my family, and another similarly tragic disorder Schizophrenia, which has.

When Dr. Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, who is autistic, wrote "Animals in Translation," I was becoming a first-time grandmother and was a victim of the "little knowledge begin a dangerous thing" syndrome. I was reading and researching everything I could get my hands on as if "knowing" might in some cosmic way, prevent. Hers is a fascinating personal and clinical story of one persons struggle as an autistic, to function in a world that from her perspective made little sense. "The Horse Boy," by Austin (actually Elgin) writer, Rupert Isaacson, is about Rupert and his wife, Kristin's quest to heal their son Rowan, who is autistic. OK. Get this. They ride horses hundreds of miles in Outer Mongolia, visiting shamans. Now to me that just sounds crazy, but you know what? I was captured in the first few pages because Rupert so convincingly demonstrates the little understood connection between people and animals and the spiritual realm that many claim to understand and yet few really do. Added bonus - it is a flowing, compelling read. I love that this family lives, as we say in Texas, "just up the road a piece." I suspect that you'll be seeing Rupert Isaacson on Oprah and Good Morning America soon.

Have a good one!

SueAnn