Being a parent of special needs kids, you want them to live as typical of a life as possible. You worry about them making friends. You worry about them being a good friend. These are all stresses that we have on top of helping our kids through therapies and medications. We recently had the opportunity to review a wonderful story of friendship between a child with special needs and his new neighbor.  The Push – A Story of Friendship by Patrick Gray is such a wonderful, feel-good story!

The Push – A Story of Friendship starts out with a young boy who is confined to a wheel chair.  John was living what he thought was a regular life, and then a new family moves in next door. From the moment that Marcus moves in, John and Marcus become best friends. When John needed helped, Marcus was always there. Marcus would not go to a classmate’s party, unless John went. John really wanted to go on a class field trip, but would need help. Marcus was there to make sure that John was able to go on the field trip.

Throughout The Push – A Story of Friendship, Marcus is always there for John. He helps him eat. He helps him get out and play in the snow. Marcus met all of John’s special needs, without thinking twice. The boys were inseparable. Years later, John comments to Marcus how much his friendship means to him and how much he helped them through the years. He wanted to express how much he appreciated all that Marcus had done for him, and John felt he had done so little for Marcus in return.

What John never realized was how much that he had actually helped Marcus, until Marcus expressed how much John actually helped him. All the times that John felt Marcus was only helping him, in a way John really was helping Marcus to become a better person. He was teaching him not only math, but selflessness. 

The Push – A Story of Friendship is a story to open up the hearts and the minds of children (and adult) to remember that we need to accept everyone. We all have certain limitations. Yet we can overcome those and fully help each other. This story allowed me to encourage the kids to help others in whatever ways that they can. And no matter how much we do for our friends, we really are learning to be the best people that we can be. So, we truly are benefiting greatly from the friendship we have.

The Push – A Story of Friendship is a beautiful story of friendship, kindness, and striving to be the best we can be.

-Product review by Renita Kuehner, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, July, 2018