TL;DR recommendation in brief: 5/5 stars, I absolutely recommend this book for the target (middle grade) audience PLUS I recommend it to anyone who cares about someone who's Autistic and would like a simple plain-language explanation of how autism often presents and how Autistic people often experience the world.
My full review:
I am sitting here seriously about to cry because of this book. It's SO clearly explaining what being Autistic is like and how we can experience things and present to others…. The illustrations are fantastic. and it's super easy to read.
Oh my goodness, they have already mentioned, in a child-friendly way, the DOUBLE EMPATHY PROBLEM originally coined by Autistic autism researcher Damian Milton. I'm going to share that little section in its entirety because it's so important!
The double empathy problem, child-friendly edition, page 42:
I…. am overcome with many feelings that I can't put into words because I struggle with interoception (which was also just explained in a child-friendly way a few pages back!).
Other books I've read about how to interact with non-autistic people have felt overwhelming and discouraging, but this one feels friendly and encouraging. The words-to-illustrations ratio feels comfortable and relaxed. There are empty spaces on some of the pages to allow for a full thought to exist on the next page.
Now I'm sitting here actually crying and I cannot see the computer screen because I had to take my glasses off so I'm typing this without being able to see. They are explaining tone of voice in musical terms. Simply explained. I now understand more about tone of voice, after reading just under two pages from this book (50-51) than I ever understood before in 41 years of living and experiencing communication with other people.
Fifteen minutes until the bookstore closes, maybe nobody will come in and I can just finish reading and cry in peace. Wow. I should probably plan to read autism books, newly released and written by autistic people, when I'm not working at the bookstore… it's a convenient time, of course, but apparently sometimes there are feelings.
Oh my goodness, the part about sarcasm is SO relatable and hilarious and painful all in one! In one of the illustrations on pg. 66 there's a mum saying, "I just *love* when I spend an hour cooking and nobody eats it." and the (Autistic) child is all, "Oh, well good! I don't feel bad about not wanting to eat this now!"
I have been that child. So many times. LOLOLOLOLOLOLSOB (because now I know it's sometimes hurtful to misinterpret sarcasm)
Wow. I didn't stop to take notes after that. Just read it all the way through. They talked about alexithymia, about meltdowns/shutdowns… just so many strategies, so much information, packed into such a digestible and easily understandable book!
I now have a book to recommend to parents of elementary and middle school Autistic children FOR their children. Even if the children don't read the book, the parents can read it and pass along the information in ways that the child finds easier than reading if that's the case.
Communication issues, schedule issues… executive functioning…
I wish so much that this book had been around when I was in the target demographic. I still learn things about myself from reading books like this, but it would have been life-changing in so many positive ways to have had this information 30+ years ago!
This book was just fantastic. I truly could not have liked it better (although I do usually side-eye retroactive diagnosing of famous people from the past) so wow. Definitely going to keep this one on my bookstore's shelf in the future!
~Betsy
P.S. I super love how they did the table of contents so I'm including photos and image descriptions of those. Also, so readers can preview the topics that are included in this book.
Image is a page from Being Autistic (and what that actually means) by Niamh Garvey.
The heading at the top reads: "What is in this book and what page is it on?"
Part 1: Welcome to being autistic! page 9
Finding out you are autistic, page 10
What is neurodiversity?, page 13
What does it mean to be autistic?, page 18
Part 2: Autistic traits, page 21
Predictability, page 22
Sensory experiences, page 28
Communication confusion, page 41
Special interests, page 72
Social Stuff, page 75
Feelings, page 90
Learning styles, page 112
Organisation frustration, page 121
Creativity, page 125
Body movement, page 128
Image is a page from Being Autistic (and what that actually means) by Niamh Garvey.
Part 3: Other things some autistic people have, page 131
Dyspraxia/developmental coordination disorder (DCD), page 133
Dyslexia, page 134
Dyscalculia, page 135
ADHD, page 136
Hypermobility, page 137
Learning difficulties, page 138
Part 4: Now you know what it means to be autistic... what's next?, page 139
References, page 147
Index, page 148
About the author, page 149
About the illustrator, page 149