In chapter six, Jonathan takes up his story again, and he could at last tell his family about his time in the garden. She always thought of others before herself and for my childhood always had her red suitcase packed and ready to come and help. At a recent UK writing conference (2022), this must have been the most stunning of all the talks and presentations we listened to during the weekend. Having struggled with cumbersome communication books which didn’t have the words he wanted to say Jonathan was introduced to an E Tran frame through which he learnt to use eye pointing to achieve literacy and numeracy. He wonders whether the authors were partly motivated by the family’s openness about their faith, which has not been excised from mainstream press coverage.

Jonathan was delivered by emergency Caesarean section and it was evident that he had suffered from some brain damage and chronic kidney failure. Your son's understanding is minimal, he will never speak, 'he has the mental age of a 9-12 month old infant' are the words that resonate again and again. It is a hard read because reading through tears is tricky and, though Jonathan’s story touches the heart, in reality it blows the heart away. Published on his blog, his poetry comprises short, animated stanzas full of alliteration and superlatives and images of forward movement and flight.

The first half of the book could have been written by me, so many similarities, so many hospital visits and 'near death experiences' and shall we say 'new starts! Over many months, the family asked Jonathan many questions and received many answers, but it was Jonathan’s description of his time in the garden that blew his family away. Unlike Stephen Hawkins who already had access to regular schooling before his illness took hold of his body and had shown his intelligence, Jonathon has no such claim to fame.

Jonathan is inspiring, articulate, a poet and enabled me to catch a glimpse of what it might be like to live in someone else’s story. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.Jonathan’s account of Jesus’s garden featured Noah — a little boy who attended the Bryans’ church before dying of a brain tumour. This ability was denied to Jonathan Bryan, who was born with cerebral palsy and for many years was consider incapable of expressing himself and, by extension, experience human emotions and who was seen via the prism of his disability rather than as a person. This book is a reminder to me as a trainee teacher that every child regardless of their label or disability deserves a literacy education. but there is also, I cannot lie, a hint of underlying jealousy - that I'm hoping will spur me on to seek out and to challenge what indeed resides inside my own son's head. This starts with a heart-breaking passage from Jonathan's mum, which went into the painful details of the stress and difficulties faced in the early stages of Jonathan's life, particularly in those moments where everyone seemed to give up on him, but she felt the need to keep fighting.