(Nov.Well I actually started reading Samantha Abeel's My Thirteenth Winter: A Memoir in 2015, and then basically and promptly forgot all about it until just recently (which I think already amply demonstrates that while the subject matter of learning challenges, of specific special educational needs, and yes, in particular the math based disability of dyscalculia, might well have been of much personal interest to me, the book itself never really did manage to in any way engage me and I actually only finished My Thirteenth Winter: A Memoir because I owned a copy thus wanted to complete the book).

Her memoir, expressing both her talents and her intense frustration at not being able to perform everyday tasks like telling time and making change, conjures a haunting, intriguing portrait of a lonely outsider using creative outlets to earn acceptance from herself and others.

Despite her triumphs, however, Abeel frankly admits that some obstacles in her path will never go away. She recounts the encouragement she received to develop her talent as a writer, and traces her growing fame after her first book, Reach for the Moon The author evokes the rush of relief she felt when, at age 13, she was finally diagnosed with dyscalculia. I am terrified there is something really wrong with me,' Abeel writes of sitting through a fourth grade math class). Offering an intimate documentary, the author analyzes each stage of her life from an adult perspective, periodically recreating significant moments in her development-and using adult language to do so: 'There was no truer feeling of joy or of all-consuming passion than when I had an opportunity to use my imagination in creative play.' She examines her painful childhood, when she felt isolated from her peers and was fraught with anxieties about her inability to measure time and distance ('I feel so far away from everyone, removed, alone in my ignorance.

Abeel's charged autobiography about growing up both learning-disabled and gifted may be better suited for parents and teachers than children.

My Thirteenth Winter by Samantha Abeel