Nancy Schwartz on Raising a Son with Trisomy 21 / Down Syndrome

Nancy Schwartz:”Up, Not Down Syndrome: Uplifting Lessons Learned from Raising a Son with Trisomy 21″

Presented February 11, 2021
for Phoenixville Public Library

Up, Not Down Syndrome is a love letter and a map. Experience how it feels to think your life is over after having an unlovable baby. At first the loss seems impossible to overcome. Alex becomes Nancy’s greatest teacher. Love is stronger than fear. Everyone has gifts. The book consists of three parts: the story, the lessons Alex taught Nancy, and Alex’s perspective. Up, Not Down Syndrome is a promise to stay positive, no matter what: up, not down. Nancy’s journey gets to the core of what it is to be human.

Nancy M. Schwartz has taught in Pennsylvania for 26 years. She holds certificates as an ESL program specialist, reading specialist, and elementary and early education teacher. Nancy’s undergraduate degree came from Temple University, and she attended graduate school at Saint Joseph’s University. Nancy spent several summers studying at the Teachers College Columbia University, Reading and Writing Project. She enjoys ballet, reading, writing, art, fashion, animals, music, and, most of all, motherhood. This is her first book. More info at https://upnotdownbook.com​.

Matriarch: An Australian Novel of Love and War

978-1-61599-270-6
$21.95
In stock
1
Product Details
UPC: 978-1-61599-270-6
Brand: Modern History Press
"Powerful and unforgettable."


At the beginning of the twentieth century, the son of an English lord settles in Australia and marries an indigenous woman. It is an age when interracial relationships are not only misunderstood, but result in family conflict, disgrace, and disinheritance.

Then the Christian missionaries come. They destroy the timeless culture and beliefs of Australia's indigenous people, leaving them to flounder in a soup of the white man's religious beliefs. The great-grandmother's telling of the family story is the nourishment that holds it together through war, and the constant battle to adjust and exist in a white man's world. The Christian missionaries will not tolerate any belief or view other than their own.

Amid all this religious and racial conflict, the great-grandchildren adjust and eventually prosper. The young man distinguishes himself in the conflict in Vietnam, while his sister finds her place and flourishes in the food and catering industry.

From the Boer War through two World Wars, the Vietnam War, and the last decades of the twentieth century, Matriarch takes readers on an eye-opening journey through Australian history, culminating in a serial murder mystery that opens old family wounds.

Author Geoffrey Hope Gibson's historical sweep of Australia's past is as broad as James A. Michener's. His style is reminiscent of Richard Llewellyn's depictions of Wales and Argentina, and his depiction of Aborigine mistreatment rivals the most frightening moments in Tayeb Salih's classic postcolonial novel Season of Migration to the North.


"Matriarch is a captivating story that will take readers through time within the aboriginal heart in Australia, and feel the raw truth of their history and social evolution to current times. A Must Read!"

-- Susan Violante, Managing Editor of Reader Views, and author of Innocent War


"This sprawling epic tale of love, marriage, injustice, ancestors, misguided religion, grief, rage, and murder is a testament to how the past never dies. In one family's struggles, Gibson creates a story that calls forth the best and worst of what it means to be human. Powerful and unforgettable."

--Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., and award-winning author of Narrow Lives and The Best Place


Learn more at www.GeoffreyGibson.com

From the World Voices Series at Modern History Press www.ModernHistoryPress.com

Fiction : Sagas
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