In a class for the newly deaf, former musician Simon meets G and his quest to create an entirely new form of music helps him better understand her, himself, and his relationship to the hearing world. Simon is devastated when a stroke destroys his hearing. Music is his life, and he resists attempts to help him adjust to his new state: refusing to be counseled, refusing to learn sign-language, refusing to have anything to do with deaf culture. Then...

"Ever since her dad died, 11-year-old Jerry Blum and her mom have bounced around dead-end towns, staying in a series of rundown motels where her mother picks up housekeeping work and Jerry can get around in her wheelchair. But the Slumbering Giant motel is different. Lights blink on and off in the surrounding trees, a mysterious radio station plays only at midnight, and people disappear into the woods, never to been seen again. Not to mention that...

"Noah Savino has been stuck in a wheelchair for months. He hates the way people treat him like he's helpless now. He's sick of going to physical therapy, where he isn't making any progress. He's tired of not having control over his own body. And he misses playing baseball--but not as much as he misses his dad, who died in the car accident that paralyzed Noah. Noah is scared he'll never feel like his old self again. He doesn't want people to think...

"A moving memoir from the mother of a child with Treacher Collins Syndrome, with a foreword by R.J. Palacio, author of Wonder"-- Normal. Who is to say what this word means? For Magda Newman, it was a goal. She wanted her son Nathaniel to be able to play on the playground, swim at the beach, enjoy the moments his friends took for granted. But Nathaniel's severe Treacher Collins syndrome-- a craniofacial condition-- meant that other concerns came first....

"As the country sought healing and peace after the Civil War, Wisconsin citizens took up Pres. Abraham Lincoln's challenge ""to care for him who shall have borne the battle."" Their efforts paved the way for the establishment in Milwaukee of one of the original three branches of the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. In May 1867, the first 60 veterans, including a musician from the War of 1812, moved to a single building on 400 rolling...

A radical new history that rediscovers the remarkable freak performers whose talents and charisma helped define an era.