Kayla Taylor went to some rigorous schools and had some high-pressure jobs, but nothing has been more challenging and rewarding than raising her wonderfully inimitable children. She supports organizations dedicated to improving pediatric health and education.

Hannah is a unique, highly sensitive child. When her mother enrolls her in a well-regarded private school, she thinks it will be equipped to serve her daughter’s needs. What she finds is the opposite: perceiving Hannah’s difference as weakness, her classmates bully her—and when Kayla addresses the issue with the school administrators, they minimize and dismiss her concerns. The torrent of rejections leads Kayla to wonder—Why is my kid being treated as if she’s the one doing something wrong?

Frustrated by the school’s failure to protect her child, Kayla researches the topics those in charge are most unwilling to discuss—like bullying, learning differences, and anxiety. Her newfound understandings enable her to truly “see” her daughter and combat the judgment and betrayal engulfing their world. In this powerful chronicle, Taylor reveals with stark vulnerability the joy and heartache inherent in raising a child who doesn’t fit society’s definition of “normal”—and ultimately offers a searing indictment of a system that fails to protect some of the most vulnerable among an already vulnerable population: children