CANARIES AMONG US by Kayla Taylor - Spotlight, Interview & Giveaway

 

WARNING: This novel includes  "trigger themes," that may affect people with a history of trauma, mental illness, self harm and/or addiction.

CANARIES AMONG US (SheWritesPress) explores one of the most widespread threats to children’s well-being: a lack of acceptance. Kayla Taylor starts her day as an ordinary parent at a respected school, but her family’s life turns upside-down when her child becomes the prime target of bullying. Taylor assumes the school will partner with her to solve the problem but is confounded when she finds the opposite: officials not only turn a blind eye to cruelty but also ostracize and attack anyone who speaks up against it. 

Frustrated by this failure to protect vulnerable students, Taylor researches the challenges those in charge are most unwilling to discuss with her—like bullying, learning differences, and anxiety. She then digs deeper to study empowering responses that are woefully absent from many parenting books and teaching curricula—including validation, empathy, apologies, forgiveness, healing, and belonging. These concepts end up providing the guideposts Taylor needs to navigate both the exquisite joy and raw heartache inherent in raising a child who doesn’t fit society’s definition of “normal.”

Canaries Among Us is both a heart-rending exposé of the ways we mistreat unique children and a searing indictment of society’s tendency to revictimize people in their times of greatest need. Throughout, Canaries Among Us points to an alternative: supporting, and even celebrating, the dazzling variety of our humanity.

An Interview with Kayla Taylor, author

What was the impetus behind writing the book?

While advocating for my neurodiverse (displaying or characterized by autistic or other neurologically atypical patterns of thought or behavior) children, I felt isolated and ostracized. And then I realized that too many peers were suffering in silence with similar challenges. We were all alone right next to one another. When I found no books that addressed the depth and complexity of our situation, I let my heart bleed onto paper in the hope that other young families will know they are not alone. And I hope the book helps people feel more empowered to support unique children. 

Why is Canaries Among Us relevant now?
It's a common yet unspoken condition. One in every five students is challenged by learning differences and one in two will suffer from mental health concerns, meaning most families are challenged. Adult literature fails to address the systemic ways our communities mistreat unique children. These individuals are regularly undervalued (e.g. considered “disordered”), bullied, and betrayed. Unfortunately, people often address learning differences, anxiety, and bullying independently, but the issues are highly intertwined and the consequences of ignoring them are disastrous. 

—A Need for Understanding Both What Victimization Is AND How to Respond to Those Who’ve Been Targeted: Few people understand what the experts know: bullying is a form of victimization. Too often, it’s treated like a “rite of passage,” and parents who advocate for their kids are considered overcoddling “helicopters.” But the lack of understanding doesn’t stop there. The news regularly reveals our society’s failure to respond humanely to any form of victimization (e.g. not just bullying, but also children molested by teachers, scout leaders, and priests; students raped on campuses; athletes targeted by doctors and coaches; soldiers assaulted by peers; workers abused by their bosses, etc.). Canaries Among Us provides insights to help us reconsider the ways we regard and respond to people who’ve been violated.

—Important themes: Canaries Among Us reflects upon some of the most urgent themes of our day: acceptance, compassion, bias, victimization, repair, and social justice. The poignant story shows how mistreatment doesn’t just play out “over there” in someone else’s community; it exists in every school and community across America. 

—Timeliness: Given the past few years’ heightened awareness of the need for diversity and inclusion, as well as the insight remote learning gave parents into how standard teaching protocols underserve their students’ needs, people today are better poised to explore the ways we treat the neurodiverse—a conversation that, until now, has largely been neglected on a national level. 

What is the consequence of addressing these issues inadequately?
Children with learning differences are more likely to be misunderstood by teachers and bullied by peers. As a result, unique kids start believing what their environments tell them: they are “weird,” “lazy,” and “stupid.” So, it’s no surprise that kids who learn differently are more likely to experience anxiety, depression, suicidality, and other negative health outcomes. They also end up having higher incidences of substance abuse, delinquency, school drop-out, unemployment, and incarceration. In fact, studies reveal that up to forty-three percent of juvenile delinquents have an identified “special education disability” that, arguably, was not addressed properly in the first place. And over half of all individuals with learning differences are involved with the criminal system within just eight years of leaving high school. Studies also suggest that about half of the adults in US prisons have dyslexia, compared to fourteen percent in the general population. (Imagine what would happen if more learning diagnoses were included in the statistics and people were treated!) All of this begs the questions: Are we essentially criminalizing learning differences and what might happen if we supported different ways of being and learning.

Thanks to GetRed PR we have one copy to giveaway. Just tell us what kind of experience you've had with bullying, if you have. We'll announce a winner soon. Good luck.

GIVEAWAY:USA only please