2012, he and his cousin Sarah Burcaw launched a nonprofit for SMA research, also called Laughing at My Nightmare (LAMN). In 2015, LAMN started a program called No More Nightmares, which raises money to award grants to people living with muscular dystrophy. The grants provide for equipment and technology to help awardees thrive. Burcaw is a public speaker, and in 2013, he teamed up with actor Rainn Wilson's production company to film a documentary about his life.

Laughing at My Nightmare is bookended by an epic road trip from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to Florida and back again. The journey, which was undertaken to promote Burcaw's nonprofit and was captured by a documentary film crew, marked the first time Burcaw had spent a significant amount of time away from, and without the care of, his parents. His primary caretaker for the journey is his loving and sometimes foul-mouthed younger brother, Andrew. In this way, the book is also a kind of coming-of-age story, culminating in the emotional independence Burcaw gains at college and a physical independence, exhibited on the road trip, that he did not know he could attain.

Burcaw was born in 1992. He was a curiously sedentary—or, as Burcaw wryly puts it, "lazy"—baby. A day-care worker suggested his parents consult a pediatrician. The pediatrician was concerned enough by Burcaw's inactivity to send the family to a neurological specialist. After a series of excruciatingly painful physical tests, the doctors determined that Burcaw had a variety of SMA. Burcaw credits his parents for not fretting for too long over the diagnosis. "Before grief and sorrow even had a chance to sink their teeth in, my parents made a decision," he writes. "My life would be normal. SMA was not the end, but the beginning. A bump in the road. An obstacle to rise above."

As a toddler, Burcaw was still able to sit up on his own, but he lost this ability over time. He got his first wheelchair when he was three years old and terrified his therapists by promptly crashing it at full speed into a padded wall, but he was having a great time; his new liberty of movement was exhilarating. Burcaw tells his memoir as a series of vignettes, juxtaposing musings both humorous and serious. In one chapter, he describes an embarrassing incident during a playdate when he was six. Burcaw and his neighbor Ben were playing cops and robbers in the yard—"wheelchairs . . . make great getaway vehicles," he notes—when he realized that he had to urinate. Going back to his house to take care of business, a twenty-minute process that involved the help of his mother, would surely end the fun, he reasoned. But Burcaw waited too long and wet himself. He flew home before his friends noticed. In trouble at home, Burcaw called to say that he was not allowed to come back out to play. He was so sweaty that his mom thought he had peed himself, he told Ben, incredulous at her embarrassing "mistake." Burcaw describes his youthful humiliation as a funny lesson learned, but in the next chapter, he shares fears about his own helplessness, writing about how each night his parents help him out of his chair and into bed. During the night, if Burcaw wants to shift position, he must call out to a family member to help him do it. Chair-less and alone, Burcaw is at his most vulnerable. His greatest fear, he writes, is being stranded in bed. He is embarrassed by this fear, but he has the candor to share it anyway.

In his memoir, Burcaw operates from a position of total honesty. He writes about his first girlfriend, Jill, and how he had his first sexual experience with her. He also writes passionately about his first serious girlfriend, Shannon, whom he met through his nonprofit. He even goes so far as to predict that he will one day marry her. (The reader learns that a few years later, Burcaw is happily living with a different woman.) Burcaw's narrative voice is colloquial and direct—it was derived from a blog, after all—and full of such spontaneous declarations.

At its best, the book serves as a relatable and engaging snapshot of Burcaw at the age of twenty-one. He writes about attending high school dances, cutting class with his best friend and cousin Becca, and taking his first sip of alcohol. He writes about lazy summer days eating hamburgers and hanging out at the pool with his brother. He writes about his love of video games and sports. In one chapter, he recalls his method for dealing with the pain of necessary immunization shots: he would yell out made-up football plays and commentary in the voice of a broadcast announcer to distract himself. He writes about nearly being trampled by a crowd of fans after watching a speech by First Lady Michelle Obama, and he writes about the time in high school when he ran over a ball in gym class and flew out of his wheelchair, breaking his femur. That harrowing story, both humorous and cringeworthy, served as Burcaw's first blog post.

At its worst, however, Laughing at My Nightmare showcases Burcaw's immaturity toward other people with disabilities. The reviewer for Kirkus Reviews felt compelled to note this, as did Kathleen Downes, the author of the Squeaky Wheelchair blog, who has cerebral palsy. Burcaw writes frequently about wanting to set himself apart from other people with disabilities, particularly those with mental disabilities. Growing up, he rode a school bus with other disabled kids, and his descriptions of his classmates are almost unbearably cruel. The same can be said of his chapter about a camp for disabled children and teenagers. Burcaw writes that he did not fit in with the other campers there, then goes on to ridicule their mannerisms and appearance in an effort to prove to the camp counselors that he is "normal." It is not surprising that a young person might foolishly try to fit in this way, but it is surprising that as an adult, Burcaw sees nothing wrong with it. Downes was particularly dismayed by these passages in the book. "Burcaw is asking the world not to treat him poorly because of his disability," she wrote. "He is asking the world to laugh and embrace him. However, he obviously lacks the skill and finesse to lift himself up without bringing others down."

Despite these flaws, Laughing at My Nightmare was named a finalist for the 2015 Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Award for Excellence in Nonfiction. Burcaw's second and most recent book, Not So Different: What You Really Want to Ask About Having a Disability (2017), is an illustrated question-and-answer book for young readers.

About the Author

Burcaw continues to write his blog and work on a forthcoming book based on his 2015 newspaper column for the Pennsylvania Morning Call.

Review Sources

• Downes, Kathleen. Review of Laughing at My Nightmare, by Shane Burcaw. The Squeaky Wheelchair, 28 Sept. 2015, thesqueakywheelchair.blogspot.com/2015/09/my-book-review-of-laughing-at-my.html. Accessed 26 Jan. 2018.
• Review of Laughing at My Nightmare, by Shane Burcaw. Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2014, p. 80. Literary Reference Center, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=97824383&site=lrc-live. Accessed 26 Jan. 2018.
• Review of Laughing at My Nightmare, by Shane Burcaw. Publishers Weekly, 1 Sept. 2014, p. 71. Literary Reference Center, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=97828393&site=lrc-live. Accessed 26 Jan. 2018.