A review by albers485
January First: A Child's Descent into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her by Michael Schofield

5.0

I picked up this book a few hours ago and was not able to put it down. After finishing it, the first thing I had to do was hold and kiss my two-year old daughter. I can not imagine slowly losing her the way Michael slowly loses January. She is the light of my life, and you see that January is the light of Michael's life as you read what he goes through over those four years with her. I was heart-broken as I read of the struggles the Schoenfield's went through. I was outraged on their behalf to read some of their experiences, especially with 'Nurse Ratchet'. I was also shocked to learn that a child so young could develop schizophrenia. I had, ignorantly, believed that schizophrenia was a disease that only developed in your late teens or early twenties. How terrifying the disease already is, both for those who suffer from it and those who are caught on the wake of the disease. But to have that happen to a child, especially one so young, is beyond terrifying. Many of the things Michael describes Jani going through are things I see my own two-year old doing. To think that for some parents, the adorable, and sometimes aggravating, behaviors that my little girl displays are really symptoms of a me talk disease is shattering. I'm so thankful Michael shared his and January's story.