Last evening I was checking Amazon for any new book reviews of my book Disability Deception: Lies Disability Educators Tell and How Parents Can Beat Them at Their Own Game. I came across a negative review that was left in October 2010 by a School Psychologist. My book has been out since September 2007, and honestly I expected more negative reviews from school personnel, way before now!

When the book first came out I was afraid of the amount of negative reviews, I would get. Why? Because no one ever wrote a book about special education and lies before, at least not that I know of. Before I wrote the book, I did a lot of checking, and I came up empty--so I was the first person either bold enough, or stupid enough to do it!

I noticed in looking at the review that as much as I could tell the reviewer never said that the book was untruthful! It does not matter that the reviewer does not like the book, nor does it matter that she does not see things the way I do--because I did not write the book for School Psychologists! I wrote the book for parents who were struggling with getting their child an appropriate education, and could not figure out why this is almost impossible! It is almost impossible because many special education personnel are not honest with parents.

I have heard from parents from probably every state in the US, telling me how much they not only appreciate my book, but also appreciate my Ezine articles (these can be found at www.ezinearticles.com)! I have testimonies on the wall of my office reminding me of who I wrote the book for--parents! I have heard from parents that have used the book to finally get their child related and special education services that they need, and are entitled to!!

I have heard from parents who state that they like my book better than Peter Wrights (If Peter is listening--not sure that I agree—I am a great fan of his work and own several of his books)! I have heard from parents who have left the book on the table at IEP meetings, and E mailed me with school personnel’s reaction to the book (it is good for a long laugh)! I have also heard from parents who have been successful in getting special education personnel to back down, when confronted with their lies and deceptions. These lies and deceptions, hurt children and cause them irreparable damage, that will affect them for the rest of their life!

I have recognized grammatical and punctuation errors in the book, that should have been picked up in the editing process. I promise to do a better job in my next book, so as to not take away my credibility!

Was I hurt by the review, especially when the reviewer stated that the book is bad--I was. I am a sensitive person, which is probably why I am a good advocate! Will I let the review stop me from continuing to tell the truth about special education--absolutely not! In my new upcoming book Disability Deception 2 I have this included in the Introduction to the book:

The article talks about a quote from Robert F. Kennedy that Reed Martin (an awesome special education attorney and civil rights advocate who recently passed away) used in a speech; this is the quote: “Those who want to work for change will always be opposed. Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, they send forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance!” Robert F. Kennedy Day of Affirmation Speech, June 6, 1966 (The article on Reed Martin can be found at: http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/reed.martin.htm).  

I will continue to fight, until all children with disabilities have the right to receive an appropriate education that allows them to live the kind of life, that they deserve! I would rather have bad reviews for doing what God asked me to do, then to face him on judgment day, because I refused to be honest, and do what he asked me to do.

Bring them on--they only encourage me to fight harder! It is interesting though that she called me hostile, and yet what she said appears hostile to me!  Of course these are just my thoughts, which may or may not mean much!
                  Always fighting—JoAnn

 PS: I run all of my blog posts through grammar and punctuation software, so hopefully this will help improve my writing!