On My Own: The Journey Continues - Hardcover

Alexander, Sally Hobart

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374356416 ISBN 13: 9780374356415

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1997

Synopsis

A sequel to Taking Hold: My Journey into Blindness follows the author's graduation from a life skills course and her experiences with getting an apartment, starting a new job, returning to school, and finding love. Jr Lib Guild.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 7 Up. In this sequel to Taking Hold: My Journey into Blindness (S & S, 1994), Alexander details her quest at age 26 to establish an independent life after losing her sight. Elated that she is the only nonsighted person hired to teach other blind people at the guild from which she has graduated and pleased to be using her navigation skills in her new Pittsburgh apartment and neighborhood, Alexander thinks her life has become manageable, pleasant, and almost acceptable?until new problems arise. When her supervisor insists she teach Braille rapidly rather than customize it to her pupils' needs and she has an ethical disagreement with the guild head, she resigns despite a shortage of money. There are bumpy relationships with boyfriends, and her hearing, an extremely important sense for the blind, begins to deteriorate. The author's realistic descriptions are interesting and instructive. Her heartwarming account is easy to read and admirable in its depiction of both the struggles and normalcy of challenged people, important in correcting stereotypes.?Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Gr. 6^-10. Alexander continues her autobiography, which she began in Taking Hold: My Journey into Blindness (1994). Blind and just starting out on her own in an apartment in Pittsburgh, she must find her way to the bus stop, grocer, cleaners, etc., and learn how to deal with the relationships and anxieties of her new job teaching life skills to the newly blind. As the story continues, Alexander attempts to resume a social life and starts graduate school. She is devastated when the last bits of her vision disappear and she suffers some hearing loss. Readers will follow her troubles and her rebounding spirit with heartache and hope. Although not as suspenseful as the first book, this one is every bit as uplifting and is sure to be read with eagerness. Susan DeRonne

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0374356416
• ISBN 13: 9780374356415
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176