The Warner Boys: Our Family’s Story of Autism and Hope

In an unflinching account of parenthood, Ana and Curt Warner, in alternating chapters, confront the emotional challenges and rigors of raising twins diagnosed with autism. Curt, a former running back for the Seattle Seahawks, retired in 1990; after a stillbirth, Curt and Ana had a son and, in 1993, Ana gave birth to twins, Austin and Christian. By age five, the twins began exhibiting peculiar behavior, including eating books and uncontrolled temper tantrums. The two were diagnosed with autism, and the news tested the Warners’ religious faith and marriage, yet, as Curt writes, they worked together and were boosted as “our love for one another forged and tempered to even greater strength and depth.” The Warners sought advice from therapists and doctors, and while some treatments helped, Ana acknowledges, “new and changing symptoms kept us from closing in on anything that worked for very long.” The couple fell from the public eye as they tried to steady their lives, which included the adoption of a girl named Isabella. Throughout, the Warners share statistics from their research (“the internet became my classroom and my library,” writes Ana) for instance, one in 68 children in America has autism. Occasionally harrowing yet healing and transformative, this memoir of love and faith shows no situation is beyond hope. [em](Dec.) [/em]