Books with author Anne Kennedy

It is July 1929. Four children arrive for a holiday to find their cottage locked up, the lake flooded, and their little boat inaccessible. Their boating holiday seems over before it had begun. Initially, this might be the story Arthur Ransome never got round to writing. But these children do not lead a charmed life. They are given to making mistakes and things do not invariably turn out well. Problems that appear solved turn out to be the seeds of something altogether out of control. In a terrifying climax, the children discover the secret of the old boat moored in the bay, but at an awful cost. When courage and resourcefulness are spent there is only luck to draw on, and it is uncertain who will survive. The Boat in the Bay is a book about a time when children roamed the earth. In the same series, The Broken Bell and The Pink House, with the same cast of characters, offer a spellbinding account of a child's first steps in the dark world of art and artists.

When Anna and Sean Kennedy discovered that their sons Patrick and Angelo suffered with Asperger's Syndrome and autism respectively, they were truly devastated—but their family's troubles were just beginning. Placed in mainstream nurseries and schools, Patrick and Angelo endured traumatic experiences in a system woefully equipped to cater for their complex needs. Like so many parents, Anna and Sean, having been turned away by no fewer than 26 special needs schools when searching for appropriate educational facilities for the boys, were down—but not out. The local education authority had a fight on its hands. Anna was determined to prove that for children like her sons, the challenges of growing up with autism did not have to end in defeat.Through sheer guts and determination, they turned their situation into a victory for parent power by transforming a disused local school into a center of excellence for the care and support of those with autism. Anna's story, and that of her ever-improving sons, is a beacon of inspiration for parents of special needs children everywhere.