Dragons Part Two - Flying Higher

In some ways, I'm totally out of my depth
writing about chapter books for kids with
autism. My son reads them for school 
with great difficulty and does not read
them for pleasure. 
If you are or have a teenager with autism that
likes to read books for teenagers-send me
a review! 
(autismreads@gmail.com)
Fame, glory, (as much as I
get - in other words, close to nil) 
or
near complete anonymity can be yours!
(I have to know who you are)
I continue to read books about dragons myself.
Anne McCaffrey

explored the glory of raising a dragon

in The Dragonriders of Pern series.

One of her best is The White Dragon about a "misfit"

dragon and isolated boy which I discuss more here.
The Dragon Book features short stories
by contemporary fantasy writers 
(Tad Williams is the best, and your
teen may also love Tailchaser's Song).
For a reader mature enough to handle
a fair amount of sadness and death,
(not younger than 13, 15 would probably
be better) I recently discovered 
Patricia Briggs'
Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood,
extremely satisfying books, with a
fascinating view of dragons.
I don't remember the dragon (s?) in
Guards, Guards! but Terry Pratchett
is hilarious and older teens love him.

Summer Reading - The Giver

Long time readers may have noted that I have not yet wailed over the choice of summer reading books that my son must read this Summer. There are several reasons for this:

1. There was no choice to make, just two books he needs to read.
2. The two books are good books.
3. When you're going into eighth grade, there are mighty few inappropriate subjects any more, sad or glad, you should be ready to read it.

Of course, my boy is not ready to read these books. The books are age appropriate, and he's lagging behind in several key areas. 

So we started with The Giver, the milder of the two books and one I thought he had some connection to through The Giver treehouse at Cheekwood. Plus I have read it before and there is a ton of information about it out there.

It has been hard going, and asking for help online brought up a new concept for me-working memory. Is my son's inability to remember what words mean due to a deficiency in this area? 
Or is it that he cannot visualize what he reads?

His lack of comprehension goes beyond his inability to understand words from their context. He was unable to recall what a hatchet was when he encountered the word "hatchet" in the text.
Very disturbing, since he read Hatchet for school and I thought he actually engaged with it rather strongly.

The Giver interests him little.
In case you don't know or can't recall, The Giver was the first really popular dystopian novel for young adults 
(if you're feeling bitter about Hunger Games, 
blame Lowry (or credit her if you're a Hunger fan))
Jonas is about to go through the ceremony of twelve in
his community and find out what his lifetime job assignment will be. Much to his alarm, he is given the previously unknown to him task of Receiver of Memory. The knowledge he receives from the
current receiver reveals to him how much of feeling and life 
has been kept from the people of the community in order to keep 
everyone calm and cooperative. As his memories and feelings 
deepen, he finds he can no longer accept the status quo. The 
revelation of what "release" really means drives him to action,
and he flees to freedom.
What happens to Jonas at the end of the book is ambiguous, and 
upset my husband. It did not upset my son who took the words
literally (no surprise there).

Hoot

Hoot is a fine, fun book for tweens and teens. No parent
is mortally ill, no one is kidnapped, no siblings go missing, 
Nazis don't kill anyone .  .  . You get the picture. As my
son said, "I didn't dislike it because nothing made me sad.
But the book made me very sad, because we spent hours
together reading and talking about the story, and my 
son remembers almost nothing about it. And they worked
on it at school too.
He doesn't remember whether Roy wanted the pancake
house or the owls (it's the owls). He doesn't remember
where Mullet Fingers was running from (the construction
site) or what he did there (left alligators and snakes) to
stop them from burying the owls. He doesn't remember
that the owls burrow, not nest in trees.
He remembers that Dana bullied Roy (he likes that 
Dana is a boy because "Dana is usually a girl's name").
He remembers that Mullet Fingers ran.
He remembers Curly's real name (trust me, this is not
important to the plot), and that Kimberly Lou Dixon
played Mother Paula.
He can tell me the plots of Holes, and Hatchet - books
we read last year. But not Hoot.
Something is really wrong.
So if you thought I had answers,
(instead of suggestions)
now you know.
I don't.
If you do, or even just ideas, please comment.
Thank you.
Sadly yours,
-Spectrum Mom

Back to the Book Club

As promised, more on the book clubs.
I think it's significant that the teen 
reader with autism I mentioned months 
ago also liked Paulsen.
I'm curious as to the different dynamics
of the clubs that include all disabilities and
those that just have members with autism.
Does anyone have any Next Chapter
Book Club experience?


The majority of our book clubs are diverse in terms of age, reading level, and ability/disability.  However, we do have a couple local Next Chapter Book Clubs specifically for young people on the autism spectrum.  These clubs were formed in collaboration with “Aspirations”, a social and vocational support program for adolescents and young adults with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s.  Aspirations was also founded at Nisonger; you can find out more at http://www.aspirationsohio.org/.  I  know that Hatchet and The River (both by Gary Paulsen) have been successful.

Jillian Ober, MA, CRC

Program Manager

The Ohio State University Nisonger Center

Book Lists (& Clubs) for Teens with Autism

Today is a guest post from an expert,

Jillian Ober, the Program Manager

for Next Chapter, the book clubs I

posted about last week.

When I emailed her asking for more

information she sent a wonderful

response and gave me permission

to share all with you. She's also 

happy to respond to further questions.

See below for a link to a book list

and a description of the books they

use, etc.

I'll post more of her email about the book 

clubs (including info on book clubs 

specifically for young people with autism) 

Friday.

You can find the current list of 80+ titles in the Columbus, OH Next Chapter Book Club Library at http://www.nextchapterbookclub.org/about/library.asp.  We serve as a lending library for our 25 local book clubs and for some of our NCBC affiliates (affiliates are organizations operating NCBC programs outside of Columbus, OH) as they work to establish their own libraries.  

For the most part, our books fall into two categories: adapted classics (approx. third/fourth grade reading level) and popular fiction (these books are not adapted, but are generally written for a younger audience).  We are also working on a project that will provide literature with adult themes (i.e. employment, relationships, health, families) written at an accessible reading level for NCBC members and other adults with intellectual disabilities.

 If you’d like to learn more about the program, you can find our book, Next Chapter Book Club: A Model Community Literacy Program for People with Intellectual Disabilities on Amazon.com.  

__________________

Jillian Ober, MA, CRC

Program Manager

The Ohio State University Nisonger Center