Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The Reason I Jump

Usually I review books for or about kids, but this one is different. It was written by a kid, a thirteen year old boy.

And he's autistic.

The author of The Reason I Jump is a Japanese boy named Naoki Higashida and it explains how the mind of an autistic person works. It was translated into English by KA Yoshida and David Mitchell and is easy to read.

If you know me, you probably know I care a lot about kids with Special Needs. I raised a long-term foster son on the Autism Spectrum and have met lots of other autistic kids as a teacher, so that's a condition that especially interests me.

The Reason I Jump answers questions I've had for years and makes much better sense than other books I've read on the topic.

It even includes an interesting fiction story written by the author.

The book is a quick and easy one to read, and it opens the readers eyes to a unique world. If you've ever wanted to understand people with autism you should definitely read this book.


2 comments:

penelope anne cole said...

Hi Jan, again, I thank you for this recommendation. I sub in Special Needs classes and this sounds like a book all teachers and parents of autistic kids need to read to better understand these children. Sadly, more and more are designated autistic these days. Is it better and earlier evaluation, or an increase in autism?

Janet Ann Collins said...

There definitely are more kids with autism now. One of my foster kids was only diagnosed as being on the spectrum as an adult, but I was a substitute teacher and would have noticed other kids with similar behavior.

My theory is that chemicals have a lot to do with the increase in autism. They started putting fragrances in all kinds of products at about the same time the number of autistic kids increased. Of course that can't be the only factor or nearly all kids would be autistic, but I think it's one.