Joyce Wallace Scott

This book is narrated by Joyce Scott, Judith’s sister. Joyce and Judith were twins, born in 1943, but because Judith had Down syndrome and a number of developmental disorders, their parents placed Judith in an institution in 1950. Judith stayed in the institution for 35 years, until Joyce, now married and a teacher, became Judith’s legal guardian and took her in to live with her and her family.

The author begins with the girls’ childhood, when they felt like they shared the world like two peas in a pod. But as Joyce entered school, their paths began to diverge. Still, Joyce writes:

“The doctors say that she is slow and will not get better, but they don’t know Judy like I do. She is perfect just the way she is. She knows things that no one else knows and sees the world in ways that I never will.”

After Judy was taken away, Joyce felt like “my whole world disappears and is replaced with the colors of gone.”

She dreamed of having Judy back again at her side, which she finally could accomplish in 1985. She heard about a local art studio, the Creative Growth Art Center, that offered programs for adults with disabilities, and enrolled Judy there. After many months, Judy finally began to work with the art materials, creating sculptures from fibers and found objects. She continued to do so for years. Then one day she created “a new piece unlike any other: small and black, all the colors gone.” Judy died the next day.

Joyce writes that now Judy is celebrated as a great artist.

Back matter includes more information on the Creative Growth Art Center, and on Down syndrome. There is also a timeline about Joyce and Judy, and about disability rights.

One should never pass up a book illustrated by outstanding award-winner Melissa Sweet. Her mixed media art is a joy to behold.

Evaluation: This book for readers 4 and up is about the love that can bind family members, especially twins, and about the ways in which opportunities rather than rejection can cause anyone and everyone to blossom, no matter what the seeming obstacles.… (más)

This is one of those stories that will stay with me for awhile. It's a story of twin sisters, one born with Down Syndrome, both *abandoned* in different ways: Judy, institutionalized at age 7, was deemed *too retarded* to educate, and moved to a series of institutions. Joyce, always feeling the loss of her missing half, grows up in the family with a distant, emotionally remote mother and often feels aimless and depressed through her formative and teenage years.

Institutionalization was considered to be the *best*, if not the only choice, back in the late 40s and 50s for children with Down Syndrome. Joyce goes on to become a nurse, a hypnotherapist and a poet, all the while trying to find a way to bring Judy back into her life. In researching the institutions where Judy has lived and requesting her records, Joyce is appalled at the conditions that Judy has endured. Finally, in their mid-30's, she succeeds in becoming Judy's legal guardian and brings her to live with her family in California. It is only then that she discovers that Judy is also deaf. Suddenly, this knowledge explains a lot to Joyce, from their 7 years together in childhood: the lack of language, Judy's childhood love of tactile comforts such as the grass and the pebbles and paper and cards she would collect. With the help of friends, Joyce learns about a place called the Creative Growth Art Center, where Judy will spend her days. After 2 years of not engaging or showing much interest in art, she suddenly discovers fibre art and her life changes forever.

There are many more layers to this heartbreaking yet hopeful story. The threads of family, loss and reunion, perseverance and determination are woven as intricately and as tightly as many of Judy's art sculptures. Her work is displayed around the world, books were written, films made about this *Outsider Art*, a term I personally had not heard before.

It's good to know that once barriers are removed, and minds open to potential, the humanity and dignity of all people can be realized. There is, of course, a long way to go for this attitude to become truly universal but I think we have come a good distance from those dark days of the 40s and 50s, when it comes to educating people with disabilities and allowing them to grow and develop, in whatever manner and pace they are able to.… (más)