In a world that ranks kids by grades, likes, and labels…
Compassionate Friends whispers a different truth.

Every child deserves to know they are loved.
Not because of what they do, but because of who they are.

Compassionate Friends helps families, teachers and therapists,
start conversations about differences, kindness,
and what it looks like to treat others the way you want to be treated.

Compassionate Friends is an inspiring story for children
and an empowering reminder for grown-ups that…
~ You don’t have to be perfect to be loved.
~ You don’t have to change who you are to belong.
~ You are free to be who you were created to be.
~ So be wonderfully you!

The Story Behind the Story…

In Becky’s earliest memories her parents were busy caring for her baby sister and the medical needs of her older sister. So Becky tried to be helpful, but instead, she got in trouble for making mistakes. Becky’s insatiable curiosity and fierce determination earned her the label of “strong-willed child.” When her voice was harshly silenced, Becky became fearful and quietly began to write, filling countless journals over the years…

Born Different

Becky’s husband, Duane, and their younger daughter have the same syndrome as the main character in the book and movie Wonder. Becky wanted a book that could be used in schools, but for a younger audience. She searched for children’s books featuring children who have facial differences and wear Bone Anchored Hearing Aids (BAHA). Unable to find any such books, Becky’s husband Duane, encouraged her to create the solution, by writing children’s books to share the stories of their family and friends. 

In 2020 the Zingale family was featured on the Born Different show. With over 1.5 million views, the Zingale’s realized their story impacts a bigger audience than just those who have facial differences and hearing aids. This inspired Becky to begin writing children’s book featuring characters who are wonderfully different, not only for her own daughters, but so all children can see themselves represented in a story – whether they connect with a character’s personal challenges, physical appearance, interests, or personality.

Becky is finding her voice, and this time, she will not be silenced…

After becoming a published author with Wonderfully Different, Wonderfully Me, Becky grew in confidence, as she began discovering and becoming who she was created to be. Becky’s first book has sold over 1500 copies to families and teachers across the country, many of whom have incorporated it into their curriculum, and said Wonderfully Different, Wonderfully Me is their child’s favorite book! 

As a Super Sibling herself, Becky was honored to help her daughter, Chloe, feel seen and heard as Chloe wrote her story about Becoming A Super Sibling.

In simple language that is easy for kids to understand, Chloe explains…
Facial Differences, Cleft Palate, Hearing Loss, BAHA/Ponto Hearing Aids,
and of course, the ways she helps her sister! 

This heartwarming story offers hope and inspiration for families dealing with a challenging diagnosis and for those who want to lend their support.

Now in Compassionate Friends, Becky rewrote situations from her life story, to be filled with the messages of compassion she needed to hear and the affirmations she is learning to say to herself and her children. 

Compassionate Friends provides a model of how to show
kindness and compassion toward ourselves and others.

Becky wants all children to experience love, acceptance,
and freedom to be who they were created to be! 

Coming Soon! “Compassionate Friends” will be available for pre-order with special early-bird pricing for the first 48 hours.

Go to our ​kickstarter​ and click “Notify Me on Launch”
so you don’t miss out on this opportunity to get all 3 of our books at the lowest prices ever!

You’ll be notified when our kickstarter goes live on March 21st,
and then you can choose a reward you love and hit the green “Pledge” button.

Kickstarter will take your information, but no money will be charged until the successful completion of this campaign.

The post Compassionate Friends! appeared first on The Baha Mama.

I froze in my tracks and turned to face the woman who was speaking.

“My daughter has Treacher Collins Syndrome too!” I said, surprised to meet someone who had heard of such a rare facial syndrome. 

My daughter’s theatre group had just finished their first performance. She plays the part of a nameless orphan in the background of “Annie.” But even in the midst of children in drab outfits, my daughter stands out, with her facial differences and hearing aids. 

Today, those differences caught the attention of a Grandma, who was so encouraged to see my daughter on stage, having fun with her friends, feeling free to be herself, loving life and full of joy. Moments like this make this Mama’s heart so happy!

My daughter is the reason…

I opened my Etsy shop, The Baha Bowtique, making headbands and accessories for Baha/Ponto. She is also why I started writing children’s books featuring characters who are Wonderfully Different. I was inspired by my husband’s confidence, in spite of his challenges, growing up with facial differences and hearing aids, and I wanted our own children (and yours) grow in confidence too!

Grow in Confidence and Compassion with Wonderfully Me books!

As a parent, I wrote “Wonderfully Different, Wonderfully Me,” not only for my own daughters, but so all children can see themselves represented in a story, whether they connect with a character’s personal challenges, physical appearance, interests, or personality. 

“Wonderfully Different, Wonderfully Me” is the children’s book that belongs in every household and classroom, to promote inclusion, acceptance and friendship. If you are a parent, teacher, or medical professional assisting a child who feels a bit different, “Wonderfully Different, Wonderfully Me” will inspire and encourage your children to find what they have in common with others and to celebrate what makes them, and others, wonderfully unique.

“Becoming a Super Sibling” is written from the perspective of big sister Chloe. In simple language that is easy for kids to understand, Chloe explains… Facial Differences, Cleft Palate, Hearing Loss, BAHA/Ponto Hearing Aids, and of course, the ways she helps her sister! This heartwarming story offers hope and inspiration for families dealing with a challenging diagnosis—and for those who want to lend their support.

Children grow in confidence and compassion when they see themselves, and their friends in the story, and not just their differences represented, but the beautiful things about who they are and who they can become. 

Wonderfully Me Books are a great gift for your children, classmates, parents, grandparents, teachers, medical professionals or anyone working with kids who are wonderfully different. This series can be used in homes, churches, schools, childcare centers, and waiting rooms to start conversations which promote inclusion, acceptance, and friendship. 

Resources, information, and hardcover books are available at: 
WonderfullyMeBooks.com or TheBahaBowtique.etsy.com
Follow on social media @OurWonderFamily (FaceBook, Instagram, YouTube)

The post Why do I do what I do? appeared first on The Baha Mama.

Not only is fresh food a better quality and better for your dogs health, it’s also shipped to your door! Though a simple on-line subscription which is easy to manage, choose your shipping date, or cancel at any time. The food is shipped frozen, in an insulated box with dry ice. We store it in the freezer and then move a few pouches to the fridge to thaw, before feeding to our dogs.

We’d been using Farmer’s Dog for years, and our dog loves his fresh food. A 2 week supply comes in 28 pre-packaged pouches, and our big dog eats 1 pouch at breakfast and another 1 pouch at dinner. While a smaller dog would eat half a pouch per meal.

We decided to try some other popular brands to see how they compare…

The Pets Table – Get a 75% off trial box for your dog!

Dog food from The Pet’s Table looks exactly the same as The Farmer’s Dog. However it does come in bigger pouches, so there’s less packaging / trash. So instead of getting 28 pouches, I get just 14 pouches every 2 weeks of The Pet’s Table. I’m not sure that the Pet’s Table packages are twice the size of The Farmer’s Dog, none-the-less the instructions say to use half a pouch at breakfast and the other half at dinner. Thankfully both Farmer’s Dog and The Pet’s Table send a free container to easily store dog food in the fridge between meals.

The Pets Table also has the option of air-dried food which is more convenient when traveling… but I haven’t tried that yet.

Ollie – Get 70% off your First Box of fresh dog food!

Dog food from Ollie comes with a free container to store extra food and a scoop. The food itself looks the same as The Farmer’s Dog and The Pet’s Table, but Ollie mixes it up a bit with different shaped packaging. My husband prefers this packaging since Ollie’s food doesn’t get stuck in the corners like it does with pouches from The Farmer’s Dog and The Pet’s Table. To me, it looks like Ollie’s thicker pouches contain more food than The Pet’s Table, even though both companies send 14 pouches in their 2 week supply of dog food. Ollie’s appears to be a larger quantity, and a slightly lower price than The Pet’s Table.

Here’s a picture of the mini-freezer in our camper stocked with 12 pouches of food from from Ollie on the top shelf and 12-13 from The Pet’s Table on the lower shelf. Ollie’s food stacks better and the stacks are less likely to fall over, but The Pet’s Table is packaged thinner so it thaws a bit faster, and the Farmer’s Dog is even thinner.

Spot & Tango

Their website has a easy set up with subscriptions for multiple dogs. So we got to try Fresh (frozen) food as well as un-kibble, which is travel-friendly, but looks like brown cheese-puffs. However a 2 week supply of fresh food cost more than the other brands and it was not enough food to last 2 weeks… So I canceled my subscription. But then I was sent a coupon for 40% off to re-activate my subscription. That is worthwhile!! However, I was charged for the discounted shipment, as well as a duplicate full price order to be shipped on the same day!! You’d think when you reactivate they’d just charge for 1 shipment and schedule the next one for 2 weeks later, but nope!! So I re-canceled that subscription fast… but then they sent another discount to re-active, so that’s tempting…

I’ll be trying more fresh foods for our dog, so be sure to check back to read about those…

In the meantime, you can try fresh food for your dog with these great discounts, because who doesn’t love a FREE box of dog food?

Plus when you use our link to order your FREE box of dog food, our fur-ball gets a discount on future orders of his dog food. So help us out by ordering your FREE box of food for your dog. Did I mention, it’s FREE! So you have nothing to loose, and your dog will love you for it… and our dog will love you too!

updated to add: apparently there FREE food is not 100% FREE, it’s actually 70%-75% FREE

Get 75% off trial box from The Pet’s Table

The Pet’s Table is my favorite option because the website very clearly shows all the info about my up-coming orders (date, food items, and cost) and is easy to make changes, as the one who manages the dog food orders. Also easy to switch between fresh or air-dried food or get 1/2 of each.

Use my link to get 75% off your first trail box from the Pets Table and if you keep your subscription, you get 10% off the next 2 boxes!

Get 70% off your First Box from Ollie

Ollie is my husband’s favorite, because he likes the way it’s packaged, and he is the one who feeds the dogs…

Comment below and let me know: what is your dog’s favorite fresh food?

I also have some codes for FREE food from The Pet’s Table

The fine print says $100 off the first box and $20 off the second. Comment below and let me know if you use a code, so I can delete it.
FRB- BT03BA0W4
FRB – BTO33DAFC
FRB – BTOLSSPOG

The post Free dog food? Yes please! appeared first on The Baha Mama.

At 16 years old, Duane Zingale was the first child in the USA to have a post implanted in his scull to hold a Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA). He has bilateral hearing loss, but back then insurance and the FDA only approved one hearing device, so at least he can hear on one side of his head. Several years later BAHA was purchased by Cochlear, so Duane now wears a Cochlear Baha.

Duane and I met, fell in love, got married and had 2 children.

In 2015, our second daughter was born with bilateral conductive hearing loss, just like her dada. So she also needs a Bone Anchored Hearing Aid. I did a bunch of research and chose the Oticon Ponto, even though Duane wears Cochlear Baha. Several years ago I wrote a whole blog post about why Oticon Ponto is better than Cochlear BAHA. You can read that here.

Fast-forward to 2025. Ariasha has had multiple Oticon Pontos replaced under warranty. I over-night mail the broken one to Oticon and they over-night mail a new one to us. The first week of kindergarten, she broke the battery door, and even though the warranty had just ended, Oticon still replaced it with a brand new device for free! It’s so quick and easy, unless it’s really out of warranty, then I have to take her to the audiologist and jump through the hoops for insurance to cover replacing it.

Duane’s Cochlear Baha quit working.

Unlike Oticon, which replaces the device with new one, Cochlear repairs the device or sends a refurbished one. But Duane’s Cochlear Baha5 is no longer under warranty and it’s too old to be repaired. So he had to upgrade to a new Cochlear Baha6, which cost $6000-ish. Even though he was paying out of pocked for it, he still had to jump through a bajillion hoops: go see a doctor to write a referral/note verifying that he still has conductive hearing loss, and then get an appointment with an audiologist to verify that the BAHA is indeed broken. Then Cochlear sent the new Baha6, but it took another month to get back into the audiologist to get it programed.

A couple months later, his brand new Baha6 quit working for no reason whatsoever! So he had to jump through a bunch of hoops and deal with a slow process to get his brand new Baha6 replaced with a crappy re-furbished device. That device came with it’s own set of problems. So now he needs to jump through all the hoops again to get that re-furbished device replaced again, with a different re-furbished device that hopefully works better, but there’s no guarantee.

Did I mention that my husband has bilateral hearing loss, but only one hearing device? He also runs a business that involves a lot of zoom/phone calls, which is really hard to do when his one BAHA is not functioning properly, and he kind of need to be able to work to pay the bills.

The moral of the story is: Cochlear Baha sucks, so choose Oticon Ponto!

Unless you already had the Cochlear Baha post surgically implanted, then it’s too late to switch, without doing another expensive surgery. Thankfully Duane’s post was implanted back when it was a universal post, so he can jump through all the hoops to find the right doctor who can switch that to be compatible with Oticon Ponto. But that cost money too, so as long as his Baha6 is under warranty, he’s just going to have to deal with getting it replaced with yet another refurbished device every time it randomly quits working.

What sort of company sells a device for $6000, that doesn’t even last a couple months!! It seems like there should at least be a 90 day guarantee, because I would love our money back, so my husband can switch to Oticon Ponto. I am dreaming of the day that we can be free from Cochlear Baha forever.

The post Cochlear Baha Sucks. Choose Oticon Ponto instead! appeared first on The Baha Mama.

Basically I’m thirty-sixteen years old… 

Recently, I was shopping for butterfly headbands, cuz butterflies are my favorite. Somehow that turned into buying several chicken headbands, because I have a small obsession with chickens. My favorite headband has chickens and sunflowers, even though it doesn’t match anything I normally wear.

Last year, Duane gave me flower lego sets for Valentines (roses), Easter (tulips), and Mother’s Day (sunflowers). My favorite is the sunflowers.

A year ago, Ariasha found me in the garage picking seeds off an old sunflower, and asked, “let me get this straight, your friend grew sunflowers, and she gave you a dead one?” Yep, a sunflower head full of seeds to feed to our chickens. I also used those seeds to grow more sunflowers, because I like sunflowers.

When Duane and I were engaged, I was in a ladies Bible study group. They gave me some wedding gifts and a bouquet of wildflowers, including mini-sunflowers. These ladies who I had just met, thought giving me wildflowers seemed more fitting, then traditional flowers. I never would have thought of that, but 12 years later, I still remember that unique, wild beautiful bouquet, and I like it.

In the town where I grew up, every few years, as part of crop-rotation, local farmers would plant a whole field of sunflowers. It was beautiful! My high school senior photos were taken in one of those fields of sunflowers. 

Goggle says that Sunflowers symbolize: coming alive, warmth, restoration, resurrection, radiate happiness, and look on the bright side of things. A group of sunflowers symbolize loyalty (like a fiercely loyal enneagram six). Yep, sunflowers are the perfect favorite flower for me, especially in this season I am in.

The post I officially have a favorite flower!  appeared first on The Baha Mama.

However, I am exhausted, and overwhelmed by all the screens and technology in newer cars. But it has been nice, NOT having to put the clutch in every time I stop and constantly thinking about what gear I’m in (that reduces anxiety and multi-tasking).

My conclusion is: I am capable of adapting to and tolerating anything. I’ve always just driven whatever is available- my parent’s mini-van, a car I was given, friend’s cars, 15 passenger van, beat-up pick-up truck. But for the past 12 years, I’ve only driven Duane’s Subaru. Now for the first time in my life, I get to chose! But I hate change, so just give me our old car back, life will return to normal, and I’ll resume complaining about how much I hate stick-shift. Basically I want my same car, but not stick-shift.

Some favorite quotes from various car salesmen:

“You can drive as fast as you want, as long as you pay the ticket.”

“You can’t scare me, I ride with people who test drive cars, the only thing worse is driving instructor.”

“That is not a center turning lane.”

Yes, I noticed cars coming straight towards me. I responded quickly and calmly veered back into my lane. I let the cars pass before making my left-hand turn. Then we continued on our way, as if hadn’t almost driven a new Bronco into a head-on collision with on-coming traffic.

But it seems like the type of situation where adrenaline should kick in. Or maybe my perception of “normal” adrenaline is actually over-reactive? Or maybe I have such bad adrenal fatigue that my adrenaline doesn’t kick in at all anymore. 

A friend asked what I’ve been doing to reduce anxiety – brain retraining therapy (Tomatis and Neurofeedback), and 3 years of inner healing work / counseling – Souls Like Stars, Reclaiming your Story with Wyndi Nelson, Soul Care with Allison Zimmerman, and Emerge Intensive at The Stirring… and probably some other things I’m not thinking of

The post Test Driving Cars with Anxiety appeared first on The Baha Mama.

Acton Academy starts at age 4 years and 9 months (K4). The Sparks Studio is K4-1st grade in a Montessori-style classroom – lots of hands on learning with plenty of time outdoors. My 6 year old loves it. Along with learning letters, numbers, etc. She is learning to take responsibility, leadership skills, becoming more confident, getting better at communication and managing emotions. Instead of getting angry when she doesn’t get her way, she now says cute things like, “Mom, when you don’t let me eat ice cream, it’s hurts my feelings.” 

Our 8 year old daughter has attended Acton for 3 years and is currently in the Adventure Studio (2nd-5th). We have seen her grow so much! She is thriving in this collaborative learning environment, interacting with her peers while participating in student-led learning, hands on projects, socratic discussions, and group quests. The studio is run mostly by the learners themselves, as they take responsibility for their own education, challenge each other to do their best work, and hold each other accountable to clearly established guidelines.

Why I love Acton…

• I want my children to love learning and enjoy the process, not just check boxes to get it done. 
• I want practical, hands-on projects, rather than artificial scenarios and worksheets.
• I want learning to be fun. Learning through play with lots of time outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine, exploring and enjoying the wonders of creation.
• I want a positive, encouraging atmosphere, surrounded by people who complement their strengths, while working on their weak areas without that being the primary focus.
• I do NOT want my children to be told WHAT to think, but rather to learn HOW to think for themselves.
• I want my children to learn to take responsibility for own choices. 
• I want my children to learn teamwork and to hold themselves and others accountable.
• I want them to learn how to resolve conflict in a healthy way, and to be able to respectfully disagree and still be friends with people who think differently than they do. 
• I want to raise children who are strong and resilient, not drama-creators. 
• I want them to be leaders, innovators, inventors, and creative problem solvers.
• I do NOT want my children to learn how to fit in, how to conform to the norm, or fulfill the status quo. I want them to be confident in who they are and to stand out because of their strengths and talents and gifts. 

The post Why Acton Academy? appeared first on The Baha Mama.

April 2018, I purchased A Beautiful Girl at a little local bookstore. Our girls loved the book! They enjoyed looking at pictures of cute little girls who each have different colors of hair, eyes, skin, as well as different personalities. My girls would say, “I am this girl!” and “you’re that girl,” and “this girl reminds me of a friend.”

I was especially touched by the page featuring a little girl who has cancer.

Inspired by that page, I reached out to the author, Nikki Rodgers, and asked, “have you thought of writing a book featuring children who have different special needs and focusing on the positive characteristics about them?”

She responded,

“I am not very familiar with that world, perhaps God is calling you to write the book that is on your heart?”

– Nikki

So much for that idea… I did not feel qualified to write such a book either. That was the end of that. So I thought. 

I had bought various hearing-aid theme books for our daughter, but none of them showed her style of BAHA hearing aids, so my husband encouraged me create a solution by writting our family’s story. Over the course of a couple years, I wrote Asha’s Little Ears, the story of when our daughter got her BAHA hearing aids. 

By the end of 2020, I was finally in the process of publishing Asha’s Little Ears, when the “Born Different” video came out, featuring our family.

After watching the video, my publishing coach called and said, “Asha’s Little Ears is a great book, but your family has a bigger message, something for everyone who is Born Different, and you need to write that book.”

I did not like that idea, because it meant starting over. After working on Asha’s Little Ears for over 2 years, I kind of wanted to publish the book I had already finished.

Then I remembered my conversation with Nikki, and I knew now is the time to write the book which God had put on my heart almost 3 years ago.

Over the course of the next few months, I watched YouTube videos, read books, and interviewed friends whose children are born different. Those children inspired the characters in my new book and brought them to life.

Wonderfully Different, Wonderfully Me, features a diverse group of children, including my daughter who wears BAHA hearing aids, her super sibling sister, and several of our friends. 

Wonderfully Different, Wonderfully Me celebrates each child’s unique strengths, and promotes inclusion, acceptance and friendship.

My goal in writing Wonderfully Different, Wonderfully Me, is for all children to be able to see themselves in at least one of the characters, whether they look similar, or have the same interests or personality. 

Reading Wonderfully Different, Wonderfully Me will encourage children to find what they have in common with others and to embrace what makes them, and others, wonderfully unique.

November 2020, I held a copy of Wonderfully Different, Wonderfully Me, in my hands, and by the end of December over 230 books had been mailed to families across the USA and Canada.

Wonderfully Different, Wonderfully Me is available exclusively on my website: WonderfullyMeBooks.com 

Each Hardcover book includes these FREE Bonuses: 

• One Keepsake Magnet (3.5″ x 2″)
• One Beautifully Illustrated Sticker (3″ x 2″)
• The Complete Digital Reading Experience (website link is in the book)
• One Creativity-Boosting Printable PDF Coloring Book (sent to your e-mail)

There’s also an optional add-on item:

• Interactive Sticker Scene with all the characters from the book.

This beautiful hardcover book, Wonderfully Different, Wonderfully Me, is available exclusively on my website. Order your copy today at WonderfullyMeBooks.com

The post Wonderfully Different, Wonderfully Me appeared first on The Baha Mama.

The most common style of handmade masks has loops for around the ears, which poses a challenge for those who have microtia. Even people who do have ears, complain that the elastic is irritating.

One solution is to find (or make) a mask which ties behind your head.

But if your only option is a mask which has elastic straps for around your ears, here are some solutions:

1) Paperclip

I do not know who to credit for this idea, nor do I know whose picture this is, just found it floating around on the internet…

2) Mask Strap Remix There are several options of 3D printed devices like this one: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4249113

3) Sew 2 Buttons onto a piece of ribbon. https://www.facebook.com/bridgettec.mcquaig/posts/10219899852184261

4) Ribbon with Snaps – Personally, I do not enjoying sewing buttons, and I have lots of snaps, so I added snaps to a ribbon to create this Ribbon Mask Holder:

Ribbon Mask Holder can be purchased from my Etsy shop, The Baha Bowtique https://www.etsy.com/listing/779581952/ribbon-face-mask-holder-snap-on

5) Use a random toy, like a Monkey from Barrel of Monkeys. (This is my favorite idea so far!)

6) Ry-Bandz headbands have buttons sewn on https://www.ishopintheivy.com/

Ry-Bandz can be purchased at Shop In The Ivy: https://www.ishopintheivy.com/

Urban Halo has a similar item called a “Healthcare Headband” https://www.urbanhalo.com/product-category/healthcare-headbands/

And Sew By Katie also makes a knit headband with buttons https://sewcutebykatie.com/collections/headbands

7) Ear Savers – I am now making Ear Savers, which are permanently attached to the softband of your choice. Ear Savers can slide up and down along the softband to adjust to the correct position to hold face mask or sunglasses. The Softband and Ear Savers are sold separately, that way you can choose any color combination. So you will need to order both Ear Savers AND a Softband. Usually my softbands are made for Baha/Ponto, but I just added an option of a “Nurse Softband,” (which is not compatible with any hearing aid). These are available on my Etsy Shop: TheBahaBowtique.etsy.com

Here is the link to purchase Ear Savers on my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/thebahabowtique/?section_id=28488922

This is a compilation of ideas and solutions which I have found on the internet. If I come across more ideas, I’ll add to this list. Please feel free to comment below with your ideas and suggestions:

The post Masks For All… including those who do not have ears… appeared first on The Baha Mama.

I’m going to start with the youngest age and go up. I also include our amazon affiliate links. So if you chose to purchase using that link, Amazon will pay me very tiny commission for sharing these amazing books with you!

First is “Gracie’s Ears” https://amzn.to/2H9490C

It’s a hard-cover book with about 20 pages. It is a perfect little bed-time story for my preschooler, and my first grader can read this book all by herself. Each page has pictures and the whole story flows nicely with rhymes.

“When Gracie wakes up, she wiggles her toes.
She looks with eyes. She smells with her nose.
But Gracie’s ears are sleeping…”
Then when Gracie gets hearing aids, suddenly her ears are awake!

Last night, when I tucked my 4 year old daughter in bed, she handed me her hearing aids and said, “now my ears are sleeping, and my whole body will be sleeping soon too!” I love that language. It is way better than saying, her ears are “broken” and hearing aids “fix” them. Nope, her ears are just sleeping.

Next is El Deafo. https://amzn.to/39oLvy2

It’s the size of a novel, but written as a comic book, so very fun and easy to read. Cece gives the reader an inside experience to life with hearing aids. When her hearing aid batteries are dying, the text begins to fade. If a character has his back turned, the text is jumbled and harder to decipher. Her teacher uses a microphone which sends her voice directly to Cece’s hearing aids in an extra-large easy-to-read font.

This book is 3-7th grade reading level, but I’m not sure at what age I’ll let my girls read this book, because…

1. In the book, Cece is embarrassed to wear her giant back-pack style hearing aid at school. Then it gets broken and she has to survive a month without it, and she realizes how amazing it is. But currently my daughter is Not embarrassed by her hearing aids, so I don’t want to give her that idea. But if/when my daughter is struggling with wanting to wear her hearing aids, then I’ll let her read this book.
2. Also at one point in the book Cece has a crush on a boy at school. So again, not an idea I want to introduce until my daughter is already at that stage, which is hopefully never, but that’s probably unrealistic…

I, as a Mama, throughly enjoyed reading this book, and now I’m curious to go read “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” because I’m probably not too old to enjoy that, right?

Now Hear This https://amzn.to/38gTRaw

I just pre-ordered this book, but it’s not published yet (as of Feb 2020). I’ll say more after I see and read it.

I did chat with the author and she said, “We wrote it for kids to “grow” into. First, being read to and then reading on their own. My daughter Harper always had a love of reading, so she wanted it to be “rich” with language! We love words. But we also worked with the amazing Priscila Soares – My Luckyears to create illustrations that visually support the story and Harper’s voice. They turned out so amazing! They capture the essence of Harper!” 

I’m pretty sure everyone already knows about the book Wonder (or the movie). https://amzn.to/39oUe3d It is required reading for 4-5 graders at schools across the USA.

Wonder is about a boy, Augie who has craniofacial syndrome, and wears BAHA hearing aids (although the movie leaves that part out).

This book has been life-changing for people, like my husband and our daughter, who have craniofacial abnormalities. People used to stare or ask rude questions, “what’s wrong with your face?” But now we can break the ice by asking them, “have you seen the movie Wonder? My husband and our daughter have the same syndrome as Auggie.” Pretty much any 4-7 grader will respond, “No way! That’s so cool!” Of course adults realize it’s actually not that “cool” but they at least they have some context and know everyone looks different, and we are all wonders!

Normal https://amzn.to/2Suw40i i

These two books were just published (in 2020) and written by a mother, Magdalena, and her teenage son, Nathaniel. He has the same crainofacial syndrome as Auggie, my husband, and our daughter. I bought and read both books. I read the Magdalena’s first which has some comments from her son mixed in. After that, reading the kid’s version just felt like a summary with less details. If you’re going to read both, I think start with the kid’s book.

Do we need to buy both books? Well, my children will read the kid’s book, when they’re old enough. But as a mom, I enjoyed reading a mom’s perspective, it was very insightful into the reality of life with a crainofacial syndrome with all the challenges and surgeries. I am incredibly grateful that my husband and our daughter are not effected as severally as Nathaniel. Had I read this when my daughter was newborn, it would have been insightful to the road ahead of us and the potential challenges.

Diary of a Beautiful Disaster https://amzn.to/2uw6boR

Written by a lady who has that same crainofacial syndrome. I read it 2 years ago now, so my memory of it is a bit fuzzy. It’s her story of challenges, surgeries, trying to make herself beautiful, and then learning to love herself and see herself as beautiful just the way she is. She had some traumatic surgery experiences which sounded so awful and made me want to avoid surgery at all costs (unless it’s a matter of life or death). I recommend waiting to read this book until you (or your child) have made it past the necessary surgeries and are trying to decide if you want to do cosmetic surgeries.

As a Mama, this book made me realize how import it is for my daughter to know that she is loved and accepted and beautiful just the way she is.

That’s all I have for now, but as I find and read more books, I’ll add them to this list. And if you have any book recommendations, let me know what I should read next!

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