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To submit a review of a book, send your review to books@kindtree.orgupdated 8/2005
Gift from my Son by Keri
Lindelein, KindTree Retreat Guest, 2005, Oregon resident.
Lindelien's journey describes the
transformative disruption of raising an autistic child.
Parenting such a child upsets all icons of conventional
success and easy creature comforts, every one of which
she enjoyed until her son Benjamin started to develop
autism--from the pleasant family life to the career satisfaction
and fulfillment she was enjoying. Like any genuine cataclysm,
Benjamin's autism forced a tectonic shift on everybody
involved. Everyone in her family was forced to go deep
inside themselves, look themselves and each other squarely
in the eye (make non-autistic eye contact, as it were!),
and be genuine with each other, rather than run for cover.
Her story is one of blessing and synchronicity. This book
is no sniveling war story about the tragedy of autism
and a parent's alienation in a callous world.
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth
Moon. This is the story that inspired the Autism
Rocks Gallery Show at New York State University in Oswego,
NY, running in September, 2005
"If I had not been what I am, what would I have been?"
wonders Lou Arrendale, the autistic hero of Moon's compelling
exploration of the concept of "normalcy" and what
might happen when medical science attains the knowledge to
"cure" adult autism. When the pharmaceutical company
he works for recommends that all the autistic employees on
staff undergo an experimental procedure that will basically
alter their brains, his neatly ordered world shatters. All
his life he has been taught "act normal, and you will
be normal enough"-something that has enabled him to survive,
but as he struggles to decide what to do, the violent behavior
of a "normal friend" puts him in danger and rocks
his faith in the normal world.
JUST
THIS SIDE OF NORMAL
by Elizabeth K. Gerlach
Jane Taylor McDonnell, Author,
News From the Border
"In this collection of vignettes about raising a child
with autism, Elizabeth King Gerlach writes with tenderness,
humor, grace, honesty and a calm
good sense. She is able to convey the confusions, distress,
and yearnings of a parent
deeply worried about her son, but also the moments of
sheer joyfulness at watching
this engagingly 'different' child grow and learn."
a readers review:
Her latest book, "Just This Side of Normal," is not a book
of available therapeutic modalities.
It is its own therapy. As I read and re-read, I found
myself identifying our own place in the world of autism with
Ms. Gerlach's. Her often
bittersweet, but always hopeful approach to the growth
of her children, is a delightful anecdotal pilgrimage. As
she relates her views of Nicky's ongoing steps into the everyday
world, her words spark chords of our own unique journey,
making the resonance universa, and, as with her first book,
becoming enormously helpful. This is another book we'll surely
pass on to new friends!
Autism and
Sensing : The Unlost Instinct
by Donna Williams
The author, herself autistic,
expands on themes of her previous book, ,
explaining how the senses of a person with autism work,
suggesting that
they are stuck at an early development stage common to
everyone.
Williams claims that most people move on from a system
of sensing to a
system of interpretation to make sense of the world; in
doing so, they gain
the means to cope with the world but lose various abilities
which people
with autism retain. Distributed by Taylor & Francis.
Understanding
the Nature of Autism: A Practical Guide
by Janice E. Janzen
This book is an excllent,
very comprehensive overview of all the current
thinking on Autism/PDD. It is especially valuable for
teachers and
educators as it contains many strategies that can be used
in the classroom.
This book comes highly recommended.
Austism
in Children and Adults : Etiology Assessment, and Intervention
by Johnny L. Matson (Editor)
Provides a multidisciplinary
review of the background, general issues, and some specific
topics relating to autism.
The 13 chapters discuss the history of the subject, definition
and assessment, differential
diagnosis, the graying of autism, self- help and community
skills, and other topics. No mention
is made of this being a second edition, but BiP++ shows
a different publisher and a date of
3/93. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
Adults With Autism
: A Guide to Theory and Practice
by Hugh Morgan (Editor)
Provides practical help and guidance for those caring
for adults with autism. Very exhaustive, covering many
different nations and practices.
Targeting Autism
: What We Know, Don't Know, and Can Do to Help Young Children
With Autism and Related Disorders
by Shirley Cohen Order
Link from Amazon.com
Emergence
: Labeled Autistic
by Temple Grandin, Margaret M. Scariano
Synopsis:
A true story that is both uniquely moving and exceptionally
inspiring, Emergence is the first-hand
account of a courageous autistic woman who beat the odds and
cured herself. As a child, Temple
Grandin was forced to leave her "normal" school and enroll
in a school for autistic children. This
searingly honest account captures the isolation and fears
suffered by autistics and their families and
the quiet strength of one woman who insisted on a miracle.
This astonishing book gives you a rare look into the world
of autism through the first hand account of
the author Temple Grandin, who is herself autistic. One of
the few books encountered on this
subject that actually gave me some real insight on how it
feels to be "labeled autistic". If you've ever
wondered how it's like to walk in the shoes of a person afflicted
with this condition, this is the book
to read. 9/19/97 Order
Link from Amazon.com
Thinking
in Pictures : And Other Reports from
My Life With Autism
by Temple Grandin, Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks calls Temple Grandin's first book--and the first
picture of autism from the inside--"quite
extraordinary, unprecedented and, in a way, unthinkable."
Sacks told part of her story in his An
Anthropologist on Mars, and in Thinking in Pictures Grandin
returns to tell her life history with
great depth, insight, and feeling. Grandin told Sacks, "I
don't want my thoughts to die with me. I
want to have done something ... I want to know that my life
has meaning ... I'm talking about things
at the very core of my existence." Grandin's clear exposition
of what it is like to "think in pictures" is
immensely mind-broadening and basically destroys a whole school
of philosophy (the one that
declares language necessary for thought). Grandin, who feels
she can "see through a cow's eyes," is
an influential designer of slaughterhouses and livestock restraint
systems. She has great insight into
human-animal relations. It would be mere justice if Thinking
in Pictures transforms the study of
religious feeling, too. Order
Link from Amazon.com
Nobody Nowhere
: The Extraordinary
Autobiography of an Autistic
by Donna Williams
The singular battle of an autistic woman to connect with ``out
there''--the world and the people
outside her frightened self. From birth, autistics exhibit,
among other symptoms, extreme lack of
emotional response, repetitive behavior, and speech that mirrors
what is being said to them. The
symptoms mask what is often average or above-average intelligence,
a conflict leading to rage,
destructive behavior, and often, in children, to institutionalization.
Williams believes that she was able
to emerge from her autistic fortress in large part because
of--ironically-- her abusive mother. As a
little girl, she warded off her mother's physical and verbal
blows by assuming personalities that were
acceptable to the outside world. Although her emotional core
remained untouched most of the time,
the need to act ``normal'' prevented her from totally retreating
into a world where ``gentleness,
kindness and affection'' had no part. Williams's role-playing
helped her to get through school,
including college, to get jobs and lovers, and finally to
accept and give--on a limited basis--affection
in her own person, as Donna. Fragmented and emotionally distant
(``Welcome to my world,'' says
Williams), the author's story offers insight into the autistic
experience. The last chapters address
specifically why typical autistic behavior, such as switching
lights on and off, is comforting. How to
deal with autistics? Through psychological warfare, Williams
says, though that warfare must be
waged with patience and a plan. A recounting of an amazing
struggle that will help the frustrated
parents, teachers, and clinicians understand more clearly
what those unresponsive ``dead eyes'' see. Order
Link from Amazon.com
Williams was not diagnosed with autism until she was 25. This
third book about her life centers on
her relationship with significant other Ian, who has Asperger's
syndrome, a lower-grade version of
autism. Describing herself and Ian early on as a "pair of
coats with names," she tells, often in intensely
moving terms, how they helped one another break out of their
automatic and compulsive reactions.
Battle by battle, they slowly defeated their defenses and
the personations of their compulsions as
they moved from friendship to sharing a house to "specialship"
and, finally, marriage. House hunting
in England and Wales gave them opportunities for intra-and
interpersonal growth, and several
overseas publicity tours found them exemplifying the meshing
of their abilities and needs. Williams'
account of the preparations for the wedding--the emotional
adjustments, finding a church, buying
clothes--is profoundly personal and may bring many readers
to tears. Order
Link from Amazon.com
Fragile
Success : Nine Autistic Children,
Childhood to Adulthood
by Virginia Walker Sperry, Sally Provence
This is one of the first books to actually trace the lives of
autistic children for over twenty-five years
into adulthood. Written for parents, pediatricians, educators,
and other childcare professionals, it
presents the facts of their lives as witnessed by their teachers,
medical professionals, social workers,
parents, and in the case of one boy - themselves. This group
of true case histories vividly illustrates
the heterogeneity of autism with its variations, from Bill,
now totally independent, to Eric, who
remains nonverbal, frighteningly aggressive at times, and living
at home. How and where these young
adults live, what work they can do, their social lives (or lack
thereof), which of their deficits have
been modulated and what disabilities remain, are shown. And
for six of them, their parents share
their experience of raising a developmentally disabled child
and groping their way through
bewildering medical and educational systems while coping with
frustration, anger, and sometimes,
joy. Order
Link from Amazon.com
More to Come.
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