Book Review/The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes
The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes By BILL DUNCAN Warning: This is a heart-breaking story about a courageous mother’s battle to save her autistic son in a world that has little compassion for unruly, dysfunctional children. It is a must read for any parent or any person who needs an understanding of this cofusing, devastating affliction that affects one to two children in every thousand born. It is found to occur in more male children, than female, which again is part of its mystery. Randi Davenport’s son, Chase, is autistic and this is a story about a mother going against all odds to give her son as normal a life as possible. Autism is a disorder of the neural development characterized by strange behaviors and affects information being processed in the brain. How this occurs is not well understood by medical science. The first signs of this disorder begins in children before they reach the age of three. It worsens as they grow. It is one of the most controversial disorders in the world today and despite the massive amount of research, there is no known cure. It takes two loving parents to deal with the nightmare, but in Randi’s case her husband’s erratic behavior and eventual slipping into his own world compounded her efforts to deal with the bureaucracy of the mental health care system. This is an incredible story of her determination to stand by her son and keep her family, including her daughter, Haley, whole, is proof to me at least, that a mother’s love for her child is stronger than any force in the world. “I was not heroic in any way,” she said. “I merely did what I had to do, day after day, and hoped for the best. Things didn’t go as I hoped they would but that didn’t mean I was supposed to give up.” The title of the book comes from the time Chase was in the second grade and became obsessed with tornadoes. “I was relieved when Chase developed an interest in weather,” she said of the small things autistic children center on, because “it was much healthier than … the ghost that lived in our house.” To reinforce that interest, one stormy day, Randi took him to chase the storm and though the storm was so fierce it frightened Randi, Chase was excited, a pleasing result for the mother. “I didn’t set out to write about mental illness,” she said. I set out to write about my son, whom I love very much and what happened to him and my struggles to find him appropriate care.” The keystone of the book are battles one must go through to get care and proper treatment for autistic children on which medical science itself can’t agree. Nor can it agree on the underlying cause of a whopping increase in this disorder since the 1980s. In most cases, the answer seemed to be drugs and more powerful drugs – a battle for which the author becomes an advocate for all parents dealing with an autistic child. In dealing with the myriad of “experts” in this medical science field, she discovered that each person offered a different diagnosis, but little or no hope, while her son gradually spiraled into a deeper psychosis and the possibility of his recovery receded. “It was excruciating to write about what was happening to my son,” she said. “I had to tell it in the most authentic way I could. I could not let myself smooth things over to make things different than they were.” It is a brave story indeed, but interestingly Randi includes daughter, Haley, whom she involves her in the family’s love in detailing with Chase’s illness. “Both Haley and Chase had many opportunities to read the book, but so far, neither has chosen to do so. I like to think that they will come to it in their own time.” She said she was warmed when Haley told her she doesn’t have to read it because she lived it. Meanwhile, Randi says, their family is as normal as it could be and that was her goal. “The saddest part of the story I have to tell,” she said, “is how common it is. We simply do not do a good job of caring for individuals who suffer diseases we stigmatize. We all carry some degree of prejudice where these individuals are concerned.” I will never look at an autistic child again without being reminded of what this mother said. That is probably the whole purpose of this book and it is why everyone should read it. (Bill Duncan can be reached at bduncan@nrtoday.com or by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470) 
A Mother’s Story
By Randi Davenport
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Hardcover $23.95
The News-Review