Living with Max

Publisher: Vermilion
EAN: 9780091922085
Price: £12.00

In Living with Max, Sandy takes us on a remarkable and inspiring journey, from Max's birth to his extraordinary film debut as one of the stars in the hit film Notes on a Scandal. With unflinching honesty and humour she chronicles the highs and lows of bringing up Max. This is a wonderful, moving story of a mother's love. You can purchase this book at any good bookshop or go to www.rbooks.co.uk. Sandy also writes a blog which you can read at www.livingwithmax.blogspot.com.

A couple of parents' reviews on the book:

"Living with Max is a very enjoyable, readable and well written book by his mother Sandy Lewis. It's about the life experiences of a very loving and strong family. I can really recommend this book; I could almost be reading about myself, there are so many parallels.

It is a perfect read for parents of young children with DS, although some may find Sandy's experiences rather disturbing.

Our son Jonathan is about 4 years younger than Max. Thankfully we have never come across the prejudice, hostility and pure ignorance that this family have suffered, especially from professionals who should know better. I hope that time and education about DS is changing this.

I wish that I had read this book when Jonathan was a baby as it would have given me an idea of what to expect. The nightmare of choosing the right schooling, then fighting for it with the LEA, the stress of a Tribunal, all of the medical worries and the constant battle to get medical people to listen to us and treat our children as people with feelings. It's also very reassuring that despite the fights, we can win, and get what is right for our children. This book is so encouraging.

We know Max from our Monday DS dance and drama group. Jonathan is their latest recruit; he has been going for about 18 months. Max is a real credit to the group and a great role model. Max good luck with your next film, the sky is the limit for all our children, Max has proved it."
Brenda Hall.

"I started this book at work, reading a few paragraphs, then pages at a time and before my shift was done (14hrs later) I am at page 146!!

It's a great read, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Shame there's no pictures other than the sleeve, but it's so nice to be able to relate to someone in a book or a film who has gone through all that we are going through with our son now and no doubt in the future. You'd look at Max now and think he has been one of the lucky ones - hardly affected, had loads of support, parents got loads of money etc. But it's not the case and Sandy's struggles mirror that of parents of a child with DS.

David Coles.