Raising Blaze: Bringing up an Extraordinary Son in an Ordinary World, By Debra Ginsberg: A Book Report Laura Porio Silence Fairfield University Raising Blaze: Bringing up an Extraordinary Son in an Ordinary World, By Debra Ginsberg A Book Report Raising Blaze tells the story of Debra Ginsberg and her experience during the first thirteen years of raising her son, Blaze. The book chronicles their experience in the public school system and lists a series of diagnosis that Blaze was given throughout his first thirteen years. A later edition of the book and a book published by Blaze himself at the age of 21 – Episodes – offers an autism diagnosis, but this is not mentioned in this edition of the book. The book begins with and continually makes reference to Blaze’s birth experience. He was induced, two weeks after his due date. The birth was further complicated by the umbilical cord being wrapped around his neck. He did not cry when he was born and did not eat for days …show more content…
He had been surrounded by adults his entire young life. I wonder if his mother did not expose him to other children because she knew there would be a problem or if she never realized that there may be greater issues because he was never put into age appropriate social situations. Either way, when Blaze started kindergarten he had extreme difficulty fitting in right away. According to the book Debra was called into an IEP meeting after they observed Blaze for three hours the first day of school. I don’t want to doubt the veracity of her memoir but this seems extraordinary. Immediately, Debra felt defensive and attacked and this set the foundation for the rest of her and Blaze’s experience in the public school system. After one day of school Blaze was given a diagnosis of speech and language impairment and placed in a special education