The Dyslexic
Adult 
Book Review 1
a)
The Adult
Dyslexic in a Non-dyslexic
World
by Ellen Morgan &
Cynthia Klein
Reviewer's name
What
are the best things about
this book?
I got a lot of identification off the people in the book. I could relate to the people who spoke about their experiences. I knew exactly where they were coming from. This was probably the best thing about this book.
The chapter on self-esteem was quite interesting. You look at the chapter heading 'Formative influences, self-esteem and patterns of behaviour' and think well, that's another area, but then when you read some of the short stories I can identify with them about self-esteem and patterns of behaviour. I related to the people talking about their very vivid memories of school and those who described always being a bit of a loner. I do tend to prefer my own company.
I
personally just automatically failed my 11 plus, because I didn't think
I'd pass it anyway. I wasn't expected to pass it. My brother passed
it and he was expected to.
I was apparently terrible at everything, well that's what I got told.
So that's where that self-esteem issue kicks in. Sometimes my mum would
ask me to do things at home and I couldn't because of co-ordination
difficulties so it would be a disaster. That in itself would effect
my self-esteem because she'd say, "You're stupid", and I think
if you're told it often enough you believe it.
How did you find the language/style of writing?
I think you need to be a fairly good reader and be comfortable with print in order to tackle this book.
I personally feel that the book is aimed at those who are thinking of working with people with dyslexia, rather than dyslexics.
From my own perspective, parts of the book I didn't really get. There were words in there that were totally alien to me, but maybe the bits I had trouble with were the bits aimed at a tutor who might want information about dyslexia.
Some bits of the book took me time to absorb and I had to re-read some bits 2 or 3 times. The easier bits for me to read were the bits that I identified with because I already had that experience anyway.
What could be better about this book?
As a little example of how things can confuse you if you're dyslexic, the layout of the contents page mixed me up. The placing of the page numbers above the line dividing each chapter meant I kept reading them wrongly and thinking that Chapter 3 started where Chapter 4 started.
For me it would have been personally more interesting to read more about the experiences. But I realise it's not just a book about that alone and has to be balanced out with a range of information.
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