When Aaron Maciver's beautiful young wife, Madeline, suffers brain damage in a bike accident, she is left with the intellectual powers of a seven-year-old. In the years that follow, Aaron and his second wife care for Madeline with deep tenderness and devotion as they raise two children of their own. Narrated by Aaron's son Mac, When Madeline Was Young chronicles the Maciver family through the decades, from Mac's childhood growing up in Wisconsin with...

Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the powerful, classic story about a man who receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache.

Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence-a procedure that has already...

As awareness and understanding of Asperger's syndrome and autism spectrum disorder increases, more adults are identifying themselves as being on the spectrum and seeking formal diagnosis. This book discusses the process, the pros and cons, and the after-effects of receiving an autism diagnosis in adulthood.

After a party when her parents are away, eighteen-year-old Kerry Dowling is found fully dressed at the bottom of the family pool. The immediate suspect is her boyfriend who had a bitter argument with her at the party. Then there is a twenty-year-old neighbor who was angry because she didn't invite him to the party. Or is there someone else who has not yet been seen on the radar? Kerry's older sister Aline, a twenty-eight-year-old guidance counselor,...

While helping police officers Esther and Lon investigate a suspicious death at her group home, nineteen-year-old Sal Miyake, who is mentally challenged, gains insights into herself and makes new friends.

A controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression
 
They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation.
Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For...

When he sees all the attention which his parents and people in the neighborhood give to Jacob, eleven-year-old Paul struggles with his feelings toward this younger brother who has Down syndrome.

Thirteen-year-old Buddy Rae and her best friend Jiniwin do everything together--taking care of Buddy's slow younger sister, "parenting" egg babies, talking about boys, and dealing with Buddy's family move to a farm outside Turnback, Missouri.

When brain surgery makes a mouse named Algernon into a genius, dull-witted Charlie Gordon, a mentally disabled man, wonders if it might also work for him. In poignant diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation increases his IQ and changes his life. As the experimental procedure takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment seems to be a scientific breakthrough...

Sam Dawson has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old. He works at a Starbucks, is obsessed with the Beatles and has a daughter with a homeless woman who abandons them. As the daughter reaches age 7, Sam's limitations start to become a problem. When the authorities take his daughter away, Sam shames a high-priced lawyer into taking his case pro bono. In the process, he teaches her a great deal about love, and whether it's really all you need.