For my Classroom Assessment class this semester, we split the class into four groups and each group had the chance to read a different book--each dealing with people who have some sort of disability. I selected to read Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio--a fictional story about a girl who has Tourette's Syndrome.
Icy grows up in the 1950s living with her grandparents as both her parents have already passed away. She explains what it is like to have tics and jerks and to do "strange" things with ones body but in her early childhood she is unaware that what happens to her is an actual disorder.
In the 1950s institutionalization was still the most commonly used "cure" for people whose families often could not take care of them sufficiently. However, historically these institutions have been places which awful conditions manifest in and rather than improve, patients conditions often worsen. Fortunately for Icy, she is placed in a state hospital with only 14 children in the unit and nurses who are, for the most part, very kind to her. Although Icy initially is depressed and does not want to be there, she eventually begins to form relationships with some people at the hospital.
Eventually it is time for Icy to go home equipped with new strategies to help her let out the tics and jerks in more discrete manners. Icy is now into adolescence and going through what many teenage girls go through.
I don't want to give away any more of the book but I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend you read it. It is an incredible story that really lets you into this girls life which is oftentimes a very difficult one. It also provides you with a significant amount of information about Tourette's--a disorder without much publicity.