I’ve been on the search for a middle-grade book that portrays a young girl with Down syndrome as a fully realized character for many years. I wrote about this struggle for TIME (Where are all the children’s books featuring kids with Down syndrome?), and I would like to add a postscript to that essay. I’ve finally found the book I’ve been looking for: Special, by Nancy Goodfellow.
Penny—our daughter with Down syndrome—read this book out loud to me over dozens of car rides these past few months. We followed Madison and Meg through the fall of their seventh grade year. Madison’s dad has recently died, and she’s struggling. She wants to fit in at her new school. She also doesn’t want to be reminded of the pain of her dad’s death. Meg—her best friend from elementary school, who has Down syndrome—challenges both of those goals. At the same time, Meg is figuring out a new school with its lockers and sprawling hallways and complicated social scene.
Penny and I reflected on her own experience a little bit as we read.
She remembers being excluded from groups of girls. She also remembers peers who were kind and welcoming. And she knows the feeling Meg expresses at one point, that she sometimes wishes she didn’t have Down syndrome. But she, like Meg, doesn’t feel that way most of the time.
What I loved about this book was that neither Meg nor Madison is oversimplified. Neither one is a hero or an angel. They are just kids—complex kids with big feelings and insecurities and longings and needs. They mess up. They hurt people. They make impulsive decisions. And, ultimately, they care about what matters. Nancy Goodfellow makes this very particular story relevant to the broader human experiences of wanting to fit in, struggling to navigate new social situations, learning to trust yourself and others, and growing up in a world riddled with heartache and misunderstandings and mistakes right alongside the love and beauty we encounter in ourselves and others.
The title points at the idea of Meg having what are often called “special” needs (even though the need to have friends and get an education and connect to community could also be seen as human, not special). And the title also picks up on the fact that Madison, as Meg’s best friend, is seen as a very “special” kid. Here special also means unusual, but in a way that places Madison on a pedestal she would like to descend. As with most middle schoolers, Meg and Madison just want to be typical kids. Welcomed. Befriended. Loved. But not singled out.
Books can be windows that show us the lives of others and prompt us to live with greater empathy. And books can be mirrors that show us our own lives and allow us to reflect on the beauty and sorrow held within them. Special serves as a great window if you have a typical child and a great mirror if you have a child with Down syndrome. October is Down Syndrome Awareness month, so it’s a perfect time to pick up a copy of Special.
Penny and I are grateful that this book prompted us to start reading aloud on our car rides. What do you recommend we pick up next?
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Amy Julia Becker desires to challenge assumptions about the good life, proclaim the inherent belovedness of every human being, and help us envision and build a world of belonging where everyone matters. Amy Julia invites people to reimagine the good life through her writing and speaking on disability, faith, and culture. She is the author of several books, including To Be Made Well, White Picket Fences, Small Talk, and A Good and Perfect Gift. She is a guest opinion writer for national publications and hosts two podcasts: Take the Next Step and Reimagining the Good Life. Becker is a graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv). She is a member of the Disability Ministry Network and the Alliance for Disability Justice and Ethics in Reproductive Genetics. She lives with her husband and their three children in western Connecticut.
