More Alike Than Different: Down Syndrome Family Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe Down syndrome in the family, from a diagnosis at a twenty-week scan or in the first hour after birth to a mother of seventy-six whose daughter is fifty-one. Parents write alongside grandparents, brothers and sisters, a brother who became legal guardian, long-time foster parents, an adoptive mother who chose her daughter knowing, a teaching assistant and a stay-at-home father, from Leeds and Lagos to Pune, Bergen, Dubai and Adelaide. Health runs through the book: open-heart surgery at four months, a hearing test nobody mentioned, a sleep study, glasses and patches, coeliac disease, a dentist made bearable, and an autism diagnosis at four. Daily life means feeding struggles, signing before speaking, learning to read, swimming medals, a first job in a supermarket apron, college, moving out at twenty-five, falling in love, a seat on the school board, army moves and money worries. The book does not soften the hard parts: a father who hid the diagnosis at work for five months, a marriage that nearly ended, nine months of leukaemia treatment, a seventeen-year-old who stopped talking, a mother who blamed her own age, and a sister watching her brother's memory change in his fifties.

Who it's for

For new and expectant parents hearing the words Down syndrome, and for grandparents, siblings, carers and teachers who want to know what the years ahead can hold.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 285 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.