We are excited to celebrate the publication of Randi Davenport’s memoir The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes, on sale now!

Despite her son Chase’s diagnosis of autism, he attended school, loved to go boogie boarding, had a passion for music, and even won a blue ribbon at a science fair. But, at fifteen, he began exhibiting mysterious psychiatric behaviors for which the doctors could find no explanation. Pursued by terrifying images, unwilling to eat or talk, unable to recognize his mother, Chase became even more tortured and unreachable, and Randi worried both for his safety and that of his sister.

This book is the heartbreaking and triumphant story of how Randi Davenport challenged the byzantine and broken health care system and managed to make her family whole once more. In her memoir, Randi gives voice to the experiences of countless families whose struggles with mental illness are similarly invisible to the larger world.

Read the first chapter below. To find out more, visit Randi’s website to read an interview with her and to read an Battling Lightning, an excerpt from the book that originally appeared in The Washington Post.

Excerpt From the Boy Who Loved Tornadoes