The book Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson is a novel that was
written ... Ben Carson started the book since his fifth grade until he became the ...
Book Report ( Gifted Hands) The book Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson is a novel that was written based on the life time of the famous doctor Ben Carson. The book was published January 1990. Ben Carson started the book since his fifth grade until he became the director pediatric Neurosurgery at the famous hospital John Hopkins Hospital. He was not a very smart person; however, he got his knowledge from reading. The first thing that started his road of success was the rock that he was able to define in the class. His faith in God, and his mother were behind the successful life that he had/still have. This book was meant to show everybody that anybody could achieve what they want, and that they are capable of everything. After his parents divorcement, his mother, brother, and himself moved from Boston back to his home town Detroit. Ben's life changed after this divorcement. Economically, his mother had to work two or three jobs to afford their living purposes. He had to make new friends in school, which is hard in most of the times; especially for an African American person at that period of time. After his failing grades, students started to call him "Dummy" and his teacher called Mrs. Carson to tell her about the grades. Mrs. Ben was afraid that her kids will face the same things she faced due to the uneducated life that she lived; therefore, she reduced the amount of the T.V. shows that her kids can watch, and made them read two books and write a report on them every week. Ben's grades improved in school, and the first interesting affect on his life was the rock samples that he was able to define. At that he realized that he was stupid. Defining these rock samples from one of the books that he read pushed Ben towards reading, and gave him more confidence to knowledge himself. He started to read about almost all of the subjects, and amaze his classmates. Within a year, he was at the top of his class. He continued on this road until he reached high school where he graduated with honors. He got into Yale University with a scholarship, and majored in psychology. Lacena, besides his mother, was one of the most important people in Ben's life. She was the one that pushed through all of the hard times that he faced, whether they were in life or school. They met at Yale university, and it all they needed to get married. She was the one that gave him the way to keep his scholarship by reminding him of his best skill, which was reading. If that reminder did not happen, Ben might have lost his scholarship, and stopped going to school due to his family's economic issues. He finished the required years and received his degree. From Yale, he got into the University of Michigan Medical School then to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He had a great imagination and that helped in all of his operations. Johns Hopkins hospital was his neurosurgeon resident; and at the age of 33 he became the director of Pediatric Neurosurgery. He successfully operated a separation of Siamese twins joined at the back of the head using his amazing thoughts, and by reading a lot of books. This book is one of the most inspiring books that I have read in my life. Ben Carson is one of the most famous doctors in the history, and his novel gave me the confidence towards achieving my dreams. I have heard about Ben Carson throughout my life, and my parents always told me that he should be my Idol. I never knew that he was a writer until now; and after I heard my parents talking about him, he was my first choice. I have always wanted to be something important in my life, and watching a lot of movie stars made me think that an actor is the best way to achieve my dream. I told my parents that media is going to be my choice in life, and that one day they will see me on the T.V. At the same day, my father told me Carson's story and I
realized that there are other ways to be important, and that it does not matter who you are important to. Carson is an important person in society, and his gifted hands have, and will, save a lot of people's lives. Other than that, good books are the ones that could inspire, impact, or change a person. Gifted Hands had a huge impact on myself, especially in school, and Carson's way of learning is defiantly going to be a choice. Carson's poor childhood life style reminded me of myself in the past. My family was from the middle class range, and dreams were very hard to achieve. However, Carson's starting point in life has changed my mind, and the United States gives a lot of opportunities to the students. The operations that Carson successfully done, the first one, gave a lot of people new lives and hopes, and my dream is to so the same thing. Being honest, this book was the first book that I found in the school library, and it was not very long. I think that this was the first thing that came into my mind to write a book report based on an interesting, simple, and easy reading story. As I mentioned, I have always wanted to be important, but Carson was important and famous; I thought that reading about this person's life time would be a good starting point. I read the first couple of pages in the book to decide whether I should write about it or not, and I found it very simple and smooth; I think that this reason pushed me a lot towards reading the story. Carson did not only inspired me in achieving my dream, he also showed me that sometimes wrong things could lead to the success in your life. He operated a person without a permission during his residency, and that was illegal; however, it was the first step that lead into his successful career. He might have gone to jail because of this act; however, he favored a helpless human's life over his career, and that was an amazing thing from him. Also, separating organs in two different children was not an easy thing to do, especially if nobody has ever successfully done it. Doctors usually tell the parents that they could only save one of the twins, and that was not as hard; but, he took the risk of trying something that might kill two children. His hands were defiantly gifted, and if anybody reads about this person would agree that he was one feet away from the ending of his career multiple times. In conclusion, the fact that he was dumb in his childhood and what he achieved in his life after had impressed me to a point that I could take an advice from a dumb person. How he lived his childhood is somewhere similar to mine, and I am looking forward to follow his path. Reading the book has made erase any thought that talks about a student's highest level; because humans have no limits, and we are capable of doing a lot of things that we cannot believe in doing them. I think that Dr. Carson and his family are very proud of what they have done in their lives. Being the person that almost everybody look for is an amazing feeling, and knowing that each person that you save prays for you to have a better life encourages anybody to love what they are doing. Dr. Carson is about 61 years old now, writing a book was probably a good idea to remind himself of he had achieved, and to always be thankful to the people that stood up, and believed in you. References Carson, Ben, and Cecil Murphey. Gifted Hands. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996. Print.
