Try free for 30 days

  • Miracle Boy Grows Up

  • How the Disability Rights Revolution Saved My Sanity
  • By: Ben Mattlin
  • Narrated by: Elijah Alexander
  • Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

A 30-day trial plus your first audiobook free.
1 credit/month after trial—to buy any title you like, yours to keep.
Listen all you want to a selection of thousands of Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts.
$16.45 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.
Miracle Boy Grows Up cover art

Miracle Boy Grows Up

By: Ben Mattlin
Narrated by: Elijah Alexander
Free with 30-day trial

$16.45/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.99

Buy Now for $26.99

Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.

Editorial reviews

If getting into Harvard sounds like an accomplishment, try getting into Harvard when you have spinal muscular atrophy and need an assistant for the most basic tasks, like tying your shoes or taking a shower. Ben Mattlin wasn't supposed to outlive his childhood, but as listeners come to find out - thanks in part to a warm and energetic performance by veteran narrator, Elijah Alexander - Mattlin not only makes it past childhood, but onto Harvard and into an accomplished writing career. Miracle Boy Grows Up is an amusing and unsentimental look at growing up not only with a life-altering disability, but growing up right in the middle of America's disability rights movement.

Publisher's Summary

No one thought Ben Mattlin would live past childhood. But that didn’t stop him.

Ben Mattlin lives a normal, independent life. Why is that interesting? Because Mattlin was born with spinal muscular atrophy, a congenital weakness from which he was expected to die in childhood. Not only did Mattlin live through childhood, he became one of the first students in a wheelchair to attend Harvard, from which he graduated and became a professional writer. His advantage? Mattlin’s life happened to parallel the growth of the disability rights movement, so that in many ways he did not feel that he was disadvantaged at all, merely different.

Miracle Boy Grows Up is a witty, unsentimental memoir that you won’t forget, told with engrossing intelligence and a unique perspective on living with a disability in the United States.

©2012 Ben Mattlin (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Miracle Boy Grows Up

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Honest and humorous

This memoir had me from the opening line. Written with honesty and humour by a person who has reflected deeply on their journey through life as a person with a disability. Insightful and moving, I in turn found myself laughing out loud and shaking my head. Many questions I would deep down love to ask Ben Mattlin about his experiences are answered with humorous and unabashed frankness. Elijah Alexander was a stellar narrator, he kept me engaged until the end.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.