My Brother Steven Is Retarded

by Harriet Langsam Sobol, Patricia Agre (Photographer)

An eleven-year-old girl talks about the mixed feelings she has for her older, mentally retarded brother.

26 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Kirsten · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book’s time is done. It uses dated black and white photographs as illustrations, problematic terminology, and depicts a rather bleak life for Steven, whose segregated school “will teach him an easy job that he can do when he grows up.” Though Beth’s feelings are valid and complex (She says, “I guess I love Steven because he’s my brother, but many times I think he’s hard to love,” which was a sentiment echoed in some videos about siblings of children with Autism that I recently watched in a class about Children with Disabilities.), they are not very optimistic. The book’s structure also makes Steven the object of the book, not the subject, and he has no agency.

I wouldn’t use this in class with children, nor would I recommend it for a family. I list it here only because I was surprised to find it in my library catalog, and I wanted to see what it was all about. As a former school librarian, this would have been a book I quickly pulled from the shelves to recycle. At one point in time, it might have been relevant – might even have been the only book in the library addressing this topic. But there are much better resources out there today. Now that we, as educators, know about these excellent resources, we should keep an eye out for outdated material like this (which somehow you can still buy on Amazon!) and share our knowledge with others. My plan is to return this book to the library, with a friendly recommendation that it be retired from the shelves.

[Charlie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A classic children's book about a day in the life of a little girl and her brother Steven, who is retarded. They take a walk, jump in mud puddles,have cake, you know, 1970's kid stuff... Thing is, the black-and-white photos make the book seem forebodingly tragic, like something awful happened that day which burned its seemingly inoccuous events into the minds of all involved...Steal it from your library and judge for yourself. I did!

[Katy Gerondale · Rating 3 out of 5]

-The term "retarded" is used a lot, and I'm not quite sure if that's considered to be a politically correct term anymore.
-It's a great way to help students to understand what it means when a person has special needs.
-Great resource for children feeling many things about having a special needs family member. It assures the feelings and helps children to know how to work with them.
-It doesn't sugar coat anything and gives a very realistic view of what it's like to have a loved one with special needs.