One of those rare occasions when a stunning literary talent and an important subject come together. As many as one in five children face the challenge of growing up with a behavioral disorder. For Beth Kephart's son, it was "pervasive developmental disorder"--a broad spectrum of difficulties, including autistic features. As the author and her husband discover, all it really means is that their son Jeremy is "different . . . different in a million wonderful ways, and also different in ways that need our help." In intimate, incandescent prose, Beth Kephart shares the painful and inspiring experience of loving a child whose "special needs" bring tremendous frustration and incalculable rewards. With the help of passionate parental involvement and the kindness of a few open hearts, Jeremy slowly re-emerges from a self-imposed silence broken only by the echoing of others' words, obsessive play rituals, pacing and running in circles, and a sheer terror of strangers. Triumphantly, he begins to engage the world, describe his thoughts and passions, and build essential friendships. Ultimately this is a story of the shallowness of medical labels compared to a child's courage and a mother's love, of which Kephart writes, "Nothing erodes it. It is not sand on a beach. It is the nuclear heart of things--hard as the rock of this earth."