Choosing Books for Your Child with Autism

Usually I write about books that work fairly well for my boy.
But of course not every book I pick out for him interests him at all.
Since I want these reviews to be useful, I write about the ones that
he likes-or is at least willing to read.
But maybe that gives the wrong impression. Maybe you think that I always pick just the right books because I am so attuned to him 
and that if you don't do the same for your child, you're not doing well by him or her.
Or perhaps you would like to know my starting point, 
how do I decide which books to try?
For those reasons 
(and because he did unsupervised reading over the break)
here's a book I picked that he hasn't read and why I picked it. 
Next week I'll let you know if he liked it.
Tales of the Shimmering Sky: Ten Global Folktales with Activities
Retold by Susan Milford.
Reasons:
Large type
Lots of pictures
Short sections
Folk tales-emotions etc. stated rather than implied
Concerns:
Stylized pictures
Complex activities


-Spectrum Mom

Library Dos and Deweys

First, a confession: when I started a new school in 7th grade 
with a vastly bigger library than I was used to, I couldn't find 
the fiction section and was too shy to ask. I thought
that the authorities of the highly academic school I now attended might think fiction a waste of time. So I read 
biographies for a few months.

Today, I sometimes make the opposite mistake with my 
children and forget all the wonderful stuff that is not on 
the fiction shelves. The weird part is that much of the stuff elsewhere is fiction 
(if you classify fiction as made up stories).
And many of these categories may have special appeal
for children with autism because of 
detailed illustrations
rhyming 
repetition
word play
large type
unusual use of text
So here are the dewey decimals for you 
to explore with and find Stinky, Mosquitos,
and other delights.
Folk tales (398.2)
Graphic Novels (741.5973)
Poetry (811)
Jokes (818)

(Shout out to Green Hills library and the wonderful
librarians there who never steer me wrong-and they
have a special needs storytime one Saturday a month 
Best Library Ever).
-Spectrum Mom