FW: Children's books on autism

[Guest guest]

My librarian friend would like to know of more good children’s books about

autism.

Can anyone add to her list?

Thanks,

carrie

,

I'd love to know about children's and young adult books you learn about that

have characters with autism--or books with good information about autism for

children and young adults.

On my school librarians' listserv, there was a question about books about

the siblings of children with autism. I thought you'd be interested in this

message on Amazon.com about Ann 's book Inside Out and one of her

Babysitters' Club books she wrote with autism as a subject.

By

HYPERLINK

" http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1K5DUV1L52MUD/ref=cm_cr_dp_pdp " Bonnie

Sayers " autismfamily " (Los Angeles, CA) - HYPERLINK

" http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1K5DUV1L52MUD/ref=cm_cr_dp_aut

h_rev?ie=UTF8 & sort%5Fby=MostRecentReview " See all my reviews

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TF8 & nodeId=14279681 & pop-up=1#RN " (REAL NAME) HYPERLINK

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This review is from: HYPERLINK

" http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0590408836/ref=cm_cr_dp_orig_subj " Inside

Out (Paperback)

I came across The Baby-Sitters Club #32 - The secret of . That book is

about a neighborhood girl with autism who goes to a special school. The

author of that series, Ann , mentioned at the back of the book that

she had some personal experience with autistic kids and this is how she was

able to discuss the topic in a book. It was also noted that before she

created The Baby-Sitters Club series she wrote an earlier book entitled,

Inside Out, also on the subject of a child with autism.

Inside Out is written in the third person via an eleven-year old boy named

. He has a younger brother, who at four years of age has

autism and keeps the family up nightly with his screaming. Lizzie is the

other sibling at eight years of age. There are nineteen chapters covering

152 pages for young readers and those adults interested in learning how

autism affects an older sibling along with his friends on a daily basis.

Comparing the two books by this same author I felt more connected with the

characters in Inside Out. I preferred the writing style and felt it was an

easier read.

I was interested in the activities and his friends pursued, the

relationships between siblings and parents and how everyone handled their

stress. It was very enlightening as a parent to boys to learn about

behaviors and coping mechanisms, things I can relate to more than the other

book centering on girls who offer babysitting services.

A shopping trip with was a nightmare and they tried to have someone

home watching him so no one had to endure a scene. Once when came

home from school his Mother was crying after such a trip.

There are conversations between Lizzie and about their parents and

they assume that their Dad works late so he can avoid . They clean the

house and prepare dinner often so their Mom can take a nap after a rough

night being up with . They always talk about in front of him as

if he were not there. There are times that acts like a wild animal and

scares the family.

Inside Out shows the compassion for another sibling and the bonds that are

formed when the family takes part in the therapies and schooling of the

special child. This offers a glimpse into the family dynamics with an

autistic child. The characters were developed and realistic. I felt happy

reading about and his growing devotion toward .

Shirley Lukenbill, Librarian

Wooldridge Elementary, Austin (TX) ISD

Lecturer, School of Information

University of Texas at Austin

Lecturer,

School of Library and Information Science

San State University

HYPERLINK " mailto:slukenbill@... " slukenbill@...

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