Closing out our series for World Autism Month, Dr Norella Broderick highlights popular books on autism to support further education. The list includes first-person accounts of people with autism and books exploring autism advocacy and theory.
Thinking in Pictures – Temple Grandin
This is an autobiographical account of the author’s own experience of growing up with and living with autism. She describes her early struggles in school with anxiety and misunderstandings; and follows her path to studying animal science and becoming a livestock facilities designer. (A film of her life – called ‘Temple Grandin’ – starring Clare Danes, was released in 2010.) The book is arranged by topic rather than chronologically, and she intersperses anecdotes from her life with research findings from US autism studies or developments in ways to help manage difficulties experienced by autistic people. Written in a matter-of-fact style, it mixes story with scientific study to help us – and perhaps the author – to gain a better understanding of autism as experienced by the author and many like her.
Year of publication: 1995
Available in eBook: Yes
Available in audiobook: Yes
The Reason I Jump – Naoki Higashida
Written by a 13-year-old non-verbal autistic boy in Japan, this remarkable short question-and-answer style book invites us into the inner experience of the autistic person. The young author tries to translate his behaviours for us by explaining how he experiences the world. He offers us answers to such questions as: Why do you line up your toy cars and blocks? Why do you like spinning? Would you like to be ‘normal’? He challenges the stereotype that autistic people do not feel for others and asks for patience from an uncomprehending world.
Year of publication: 2007 (Japanese), 2013 (English)
Available in eBook: Yes
Available in audiobook: Yes
Neurotribes – Steve Silberman
This is a popular in-depth journalistic-style book on autistic spectrum disorders, speckled with individual stories and scientific research, and boasting a foreword by Oliver Sacks. The author looks at how autism was understood historically, and explores advocacy related to autism and how that has played out in the US in particular. The book argues for us to respect difference and embrace neurodiversity.
Year of publication: 2015
Available in eBook: Yes
Available in audiobook: Yes
The Pattern Seekers – Simon Baron Cohen
This offering comes from well-known UK psychologist, Simon Baron Cohen, who has written extensively on the topic of autism. In this book, he sets out the ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism, contrasting ‘systemising’ brains with ‘empathising’ brains. He explores the idea that autistic people are extreme systemisers, with less empathising ability than the population average. He argues that this systemising trait of autistic people has likely been the basis for much human invention.
Year of publication: 2020
Available in eBook: Yes
Available in audiobook: Yes