A Princess of Mars

My twelve year old son likes books aimed at a younger demographic. This is true for some kids with autism. 

Many will stick with a series or even one special book

long after their peers have moved on. 

Of course other kids with autism, particularly

those with Asperger’s, have different literary tastes.

We met a boy about my son’s age Friday 

who has Asperger’s and one of his favorites is 

A Princess of Mars.

This was one of my favorites growing up too.

If you saw the ill-fated movie John Carter, 

you know a little of the story. 

American jumps to Mars, and rescues a Barsoomian (Martian) beauty, the red-skinned Princess Dejah Thoris.

The whole tale is utterly improbable and quite exciting, just what you would expect from Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Great Things about A Princess of Mars for kids with autism:

1.  start of a series-lots more Barsoom books to enjoy
2.  little subtext - if the characters feel something they say so.
3.  eventful narrative to keep kids engaged

Less Helpful

1.  poor and dated social models-good men fight, good women scream
2.  unrealistic situations (obviously)

So you may want to talk about how life is different than

in the books, just in case your kid starts planning a trip to battle a Thark, or worse, decides you are a Thark.

(I'm not a Thark, but I do look a little green today .  .  .)

- Spectrum Mom

This book is also available for free online

Home Educating Our Autistic Spectrum Children

Home Educating Our Autistic Spectrum Children: 
Paths Are Made by Walking
Edited by Terri Dowty & Kitt Cowlishaw
This book fits both the All Grown Up Monday
and the Education Friday category, so I'm writing about it late
Friday and probably no one will read this until Monday.
I started reading this book with a great deal of skepticism and with two
major expectations:
1 All the children (despite the inclusive title) would have Asperger's.
2 The case histories would not give the nitty gritty of education.
To a large extent this proved to be the case, and I didn't realize that 
some case histories would be from the U.K. and even Australia. Sure, Education
Otherwise sounds like a great resource, but Americans can't access it.
But the book succeeds in what I see as the editors' main goal-
showing that people can and do home school their children with autism
and that this can be a valuable and viable option for many families. 
Yes, most of the parents are writing about home schooling their
kids with Asperger's. And many of these kids seem perfectly suited
to home schooling, easily accomplishing academic tasks with minimal
direction. But not all. Greg, for instance, required a different, more intensive,
and more creative approach. His parents basically gave up on a family life to 
educate him, but "a different life need not necessarily mean a lesser one."
The common denominator among these parents
was that they felt their children would learn better at home than at
school. Any parent may make that choice.
Personally, I am very, very grateful that my son has a supportive 
team at public school helping him learn. But the stories in this book
made homeschooling a child with autism seem a little less daunting.
-Spectrum Mom

Be Different

ALL GROWN-UP MONDAYS - Books for Adults

Review by Leisa Hammett @ LeisaHammett.com

Be Different: 

Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian with Practical Advice for Aspergians, Misfits, 
Families & Teachers  

 John Elder Robison's Be Different gives a vivid image of what it is like to have Asperger's 

and to deal with common situations that most neurotypical individuals take for granted.

 He describes, for instance, what it's like to ask a girl to dance at a party. 

But, the angst he suffers in doing so would normally be seen in a seventh grader, 

only he is in his late teens or early 20's at the time of the incident. Throughout the book,

I had an emotional reaction to his struggle and was extremely impressed with how he overcame 

each Aspergian hurdle. 

At times, when he explains how he vaulted these hurdles, it almost seems braggadocio,

 but I have to take into account that he may not understand why it would sound that way. 

It's as if he has an Horatio Alger's life. He will state in an almost matter-of-fact manner that 

he designed the light-show guitar for one of the bandmates of KISS. Anyone who knows 

anything about KISS knows about the famed guitar. And this goes beyond his skills as an 

electronic genius, he's a mechanical genius as well, owning a high-end automotive repair shop 

specializing in Mercedes Benzes, Range Rovers and Bentleys, to name a few.

Be Different is a unique book that gives the reader an experiential opportunity to step

 in the shoes and life of someone who has Asperger's. And for that reason, the plodding,

 the odd lay out, etc., is more than tolerable. Furthermore, he has attached an appendix 

that will serve as an excellent resource guide for anyone who has Asperger's or for their 

family members.

Readers can learn more about this book and others plus autism and “disAbility” at 

LeisaHammett.com, The Journey with Grace: Autism, Art & All the Rest of Life

Look Me in the Eye/Leisa A. Hammett

Today - a new series begins! Instead of the usual fare of autism-friendly children’s literature, 
here is something for adults in this guest review by Nashville-based author, speaker and 
autism-mom/advocate, Leisa A. Hammett.

Here’s a portion of her review of John Elder Robison’s Look me in the Eye his extraordinary life
with Asperger’s.
“Parts of "Aspergian" John Elder Robison's Look Me in the Eye plod. 

Including the beginning and parts of the end. Yet, the writing is crisp, the character
(himself) intriguing and likable. And, the reader hopefully realizes--as I did--that this is,
after all, an autobiography of a person with Asperger's syndrome...The sometimes chokingly-dry
intricate details are his life, the machinations of his incredibly gifted mind,
and naturally in character with Asperger's. Remembering that makes the dry passages palatable
and even a bit charming.

I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to expand their understanding of
Asperger's syndrome, especially parents of children with autism. It is one of the better books
I've read by an "Aspergian." There are many books out by people on this high end of the autism
spectrum and some of them are also dry or disjointed. But the beauty of them is that it is their
story told by them--not an expert writing about them and not a parent. I am very grateful to such
authors because they expand my parent view of the spectrum as well as educate the world,
hopefully, to become more tolerant. I truly turned the last page and closed the cover of
 Look Me in the Eye more enlightened and possessing a deeper understanding of the syndrome.

Robison has been successful with his first book. Here's a link to his second book, Be Different.
Look Me in the Eye was listed as a New York Times bestseller. Both Robison and
highly successful author-brother Auguston Burroughs (Running with Scissors),
though their childhood was frighteningly traumatic, can credit their poet mother
for a genetic gift with words. With skilled effort--that appeared effortlessly--Robinson
takes the reader through his childhood, adolescence, young and middle adulthood.

The childhood scenes are at times a bit harrowing and .  .  . ”
[you can read the rest of this review @ http://www.leisahammett.com: “The Journey with Grace:
Autism, Art & All the Rest of Life”].

[Leisa A. Hammett publishes her blog three times weekly and usually focuses on autism and 
“disAbility”on Wednesdays. She also occasionally covers art and autism on Fridays.]

Non-Fiction for Children with Autism

I often read that non-fiction appeals more to 
young readers with autism than fiction does.
I wish that the writers would specify more about
the readers and what their specific diagnoses are,
as I suspect that this is especially true of young 
readers with Asperger's.
Non-fiction makes a strong appeal to a 
logical mind that sometimes motivations,
emotions and behavior confusing. On the
other hand, books without narratives can
be extremely challenging to young readers
who need a logical progression from page
to page. I know there are blends of the two
for adults-perhaps someone knows of a book
that balances fact and narrative well for kids?
My son is working on a science project about a
stream, so we've dipped into the Scholastic Atlas of Weather
Here is what my son learned about water and weather:
"Water is found everywhere.
Rain falls from nimbostratus clouds that cover the sky.
Heavy rain falls from cumulonimbus clouds.
Water droplets encounter warm air followed by cold air to make ice    
pellets.
Ice crystals fall to the ground in Winter."
At first he wrote,  "I swim in water in Summer.
Water is beautiful." 
He could not remember anything he had
read. So I asked him to sit with the book
next to him and write five sentences from
it.
As you can see, so far we have not found
a non-fiction book that interests my son.
-Spectrum Mom

A kid is a kid is a kid is a kid

Long before I started blogging I was 
a freelance (or perhaps guerilla) book
advisor for kids. You know, the crazy 
lady who pops out of the book stacks 
and insists your child must read The 
Book of Three?
My favorite advisee is a friend's daughter, 
age 10, the same age as my boy with autism. 
She's my favorite because she devours 
fantasy books just as I do. But when my 
friend told me she had read all my picks and 
was ready for more, I started thinking about
how the books we read shape us.

When I started blogging I realized that one
of the reasons I hadn't found many book 
lists for kids with autism is because autism 
is only one factor among many to consider 
when choosing books for a child, like age, 
grade level, ability, interests, etcetera. 
But there are book lists based on each of 
those factors. So if I have to have a hundred 
subcategories to make this blog useful, I will.
Today's post is specifically for the 
3rd - 5th grade reader who reads 
independently but has narrow interests
- perhaps a child with Asperger's.
The New Way Things Work is a great 
book for those with an interest in 
machines and those you want to interest 
in machines. The mammoth illustrations
may be enough to hook those kids with
 interest in animals (strong for many kids).
Next, a few titles aimed 
at that same group 
but especially useful for 
girls with social skills 
issues-
Cleary writes clearly
about what being a kid 
with a sibling is like, what you should 
and should not do when you're upset 
and other relevant topics.
A special chance for one of your
favorites to become one of your
child's.

The Cobble Street Cousins by
the wonderful Cynthia Rylant
(Lighthouse Family, Henry and
Mudge, Poppleton) is another
series that gives some of the basics 
on the give and take of being a 
friend and being in a family.


What book choices seem unique
to your kid? What book choices
remind you a kid is a kid?
Comment or e-me @
autismreads@gmail.com.


-Spectrum Mom

Reading by Numbers

My son likes calendars.
If you know this already,
skip ahead. He really likes
them and started studying/reading
them in Kindergarten. This means
he can tell you the day of the week
for any given date and is an oracle
on matters such as when Easter or
Rosh Hashanah will be.


This summer someone asked him
what day of the week she was born
on, and when he told her, she said
no-he was one day off because she
was born Easter Sunday. He didn't
get upset, but I checked and he was
right-her family just had a nice myth 
going about their Easter Sunday
babe.


He's not the only one, but the ability
is uncommon enough that some think
of it as a savant skill-I do not 
because he studied to attain it and
he uses calculation skills to do it.


But does this number focus help
or hurt his reading? 


Soon after my son read fluently on
his own he began to stop whenever
he reached a date or a day. He wanted
to know the exact date. To keep him
reading we taught him to look at the 
copyright date. We've tried to explain
that fiction does not usually stick to
real dates, but without some aid he
gets stuck on when something 
happened and won't keep reading.


Since he already has more interest
in what page a chapter starts than
what happens in the story, this is
a compromise to at least get him
back to the words. Still, watching
him flip to the front of Frindle
(a good 5th grade book with some
picture support and a story without
too much subtext) to find out
what day Nick's school started
gives me pause.


So far, we have not been able to
harness this interest to history
or send the numbers down 
useful channels. We'll keep 
trying.


Children with Asperger's often
have one subject they read
voraciously about. Have
any of you using that interest
to introduce other related 
topics? What about children
who love timetables or bus
schedules or baseball
statistics? How do those
interests translate to reading
in general, for learning or
fun?


Hoping you have a good
number of the day (I suggest
six. Or two. Really, they're
all good).


-Spectrum Mom