Book Review:
Always on the lookout for biographies to pitch to teen readers, I jumped in to a galley of Laughing at My Nightmare. I couldn’t put it down. Shane Burcaw is a 21-year-old writer who has amassed a following for his LAMN blog on Tumblr in the short time it has been on. He writes quirky observations on random stuff, answers real and ridiculous questions, and lays it on the line on how it is to live with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, his own personal Nightmare. SMA is a degenerative disease that doesn’t allow his body to create muscles, making his life one of depending on others for help. And he lives with the knowledge that it might take one respiratory infection to overwhelm his ability to clear his lungs enough to breathe.
In spite of that, Shane spends his days laughing.
Shane’s irreverent sense of humor rings clearly through his writing. While wincing at the indignities he has to endure, you laugh at the way he views them. The book is a collection of moments that have made him who he is, self-perceived warts and all. From playing football with his neighborhood friends, to the rides in the “short bus”, to the realization that he isn’t as strong as he was ten years ago, to finding a girlfriend, Shane comes through as a funny kid with lots of friends, a gift for writing, and a mission to make others laugh.
I joined Tumblr just to be able to follow his blog and the book will be on my library shelf as soon as it is published in October.
Read his blog here: http://laughingatmynightmare.tumblr.com/
