Trigger Warning: Discussions of presuming incompetence, preventing autistics
That's Landon Bryce of thAutcast's new book. I got it for Hanukkah, and it was even better than I expected it to be. That's saying a lot, since I like thAutcast, I liked what Autoons I'd seen before I got the book, and I read a lot of very good reviews before I got it. And no, he's not paying me to write this review or anything. It's just that good.
First things first: If you have ever, will ever, or may ever interact with someone autistic ever, go get the book:
E-book/Kindle
Paperback
Done that? Good.
So, this is why I thought it was really, really good- there were three autistic main characters, all different. One was non-speaking. None considered themselves tragedies. There was a friend, a sibling, and a doctor as well- the sibling "love[s] her brother, but hate[s] his autism," and the brother "love[s] his sister, but she hates a part of him." The autistic brother knew the kind of things his sister and the doctor talked about, and he was aware (and disapproving) of the fact that they didn't like it when he disagreed with them.
I had to try (and fail) not to cry as I read. I saw people assuming Marko (Marko is the sound that means me-me being the one who does not speak) could not understand because he could not speak, Marko thinking that he is still worth getting to know, and most people not understanding. The other autistic- I think it was Vector, though facial recognition=not so good, was still friends with him, and understood that friendship is important. Pang was sorry that about Vector being autistic, but Vector was not sorry. It's a common theme- people are sorry that we are autistic rather than taking the time to understand us. People assume we can not understand rather than taking the time to understand our communication. People assume they know better than we do what we want to be called. And the comeback when that came up! I swear, "You seem like a person with rudeness when you tell me what to call myself" is my new comeback to people who want me to use person-first. It was great. Things happened in this short book that reminded me of what really happens. It's a book that a child can read and that an adult can still learn from.
The characters were well-developed too, I thought. All the Autoons had feelings. All were capable of friendship. All felt like three-dimensional characters, meaning that in thirty-eight pages of mostly pictures, Landon Bryce managed to paint three better autistic characters than many books do in over a hundred.
That's Landon Bryce of thAutcast's new book. I got it for Hanukkah, and it was even better than I expected it to be. That's saying a lot, since I like thAutcast, I liked what Autoons I'd seen before I got the book, and I read a lot of very good reviews before I got it. And no, he's not paying me to write this review or anything. It's just that good.
First things first: If you have ever, will ever, or may ever interact with someone autistic ever, go get the book:
E-book/Kindle
Paperback
Done that? Good.
So, this is why I thought it was really, really good- there were three autistic main characters, all different. One was non-speaking. None considered themselves tragedies. There was a friend, a sibling, and a doctor as well- the sibling "love[s] her brother, but hate[s] his autism," and the brother "love[s] his sister, but she hates a part of him." The autistic brother knew the kind of things his sister and the doctor talked about, and he was aware (and disapproving) of the fact that they didn't like it when he disagreed with them.
I had to try (and fail) not to cry as I read. I saw people assuming Marko (Marko is the sound that means me-me being the one who does not speak) could not understand because he could not speak, Marko thinking that he is still worth getting to know, and most people not understanding. The other autistic- I think it was Vector, though facial recognition=not so good, was still friends with him, and understood that friendship is important. Pang was sorry that about Vector being autistic, but Vector was not sorry. It's a common theme- people are sorry that we are autistic rather than taking the time to understand us. People assume we can not understand rather than taking the time to understand our communication. People assume they know better than we do what we want to be called. And the comeback when that came up! I swear, "You seem like a person with rudeness when you tell me what to call myself" is my new comeback to people who want me to use person-first. It was great. Things happened in this short book that reminded me of what really happens. It's a book that a child can read and that an adult can still learn from.
The characters were well-developed too, I thought. All the Autoons had feelings. All were capable of friendship. All felt like three-dimensional characters, meaning that in thirty-eight pages of mostly pictures, Landon Bryce managed to paint three better autistic characters than many books do in over a hundred.
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