Gravity Pulls You In

Gravity pulls you in: Perspectives on parenting children on the autism spectrum is a compilation of slice-of-life stories put together by Kyra Anderson and Vicki Forman. In Chicken Soup for the Soul style, mothers (and a few fathers) describe their experiences raising children with autism in short, 4-5 page stories and poems. Each writer provides a unique story, spanning topics from the early years to headstrong teens to awkward interactions with colleagues at work.

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Parallel Play: Growing Up with Undiagnosed Asperger's

Parallel play: growing up with undiagnosed Asperger's is a memoir by Pulitzer Prize-winner and music critic Tim Page. The book was prompted by a popular article in the New Yorker, in which Page describes his confused and directionless childhood. Page's writing is lyrical and self-aware, with insightful passages like, "Not only did I not see the forest for the trees; I was so intensely distracted that I missed the trees for the species of lichen on their bark" and, "It would be easier for me to improvise an epic poem at a sold-out Yankee Stadium than to approach an attractive stranger across the room and strike up a conversation."

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Look me in the eye

Look me in the eye: my life with Asperger's is an autobiographical work by John Elder Robison, brother to Augusten Burroughs of Running with Scissors fame. As a child Robison was bullied, ignored, and labeled a "deviant". He became fascinated with electrical circuits and grew into a successful engineer. But the higher he climbed on the corporate ladder, the more difficult it became to feign "normalcy," until he was finally diagnosed with Aspergers at the age of 40.

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Songs of the Gorilla Nation

Songs of the Gorilla Nation: My Journey Through Autism is by Dawn Prince-Hughes, Ph.D, an inspiring woman who overcome the solitude of undiagnosed Asperger's by studying and connecting with gorillas. Her memoir recalls childhood years of pervasive fear and chaos, and a confusing youth clouded by drugs and exotic dancing. Dawn finally finds her identity as a successful anthropologist, working with primates who, like her, are "captive animals who don't speak the language, look the looks, move in the right ways."

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Born on the Wrong Planet

"I found Star Trek and fell in love with Spock. He was a hybrid, torn between his human side and his alien side...I felt that Spock and I were made for each other, and it seemed to me to be a cruel trick of nature that he didn't exist in real life."

In Born on the Wrong Planet, Erika Hammerschmidt writes of her experiences as a young woman growing up with Asperger and Tourette Syndromes. The book follows her journey from the escapism of childhood to finding love and her place in the world of adulthood.

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The Horse Boy

The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son by Rupert Isaacson tells the story of how Isaacson's son Rowan, born with autism learns to speak and grow as a person through the use of horses. Their journey of discovery takes them to outer Mongolia, where they have many adventures and grow as a family.

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A Child's Journey

A Child's Journey Out of Autism: One Family's Story of Living in Hope and Finding a Cure by Leeann Whiffen is the story of a family's struggle with autism. Whiffen explores what treatments eased her son Clay's symptoms, where they found support, and how the family conquered the toughest challenge of their life.

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Non-Indiana resident? Find this item at your local library through WorldCat.

Sons Grow Up

Miracle Run: Watching my Autistic Sons Grow Up--And Take Their First Steps Into Adulthood by Corrine Morgan-Thomas is the true story of a single mother, barely making ends meet and who could hardly afford the expensive doctors for her twins, Stephen and Phillip, that were diagnosed with autism. This mother, however, manages on her own to keep her boys out of institutions and in regular school and aids in their journey of growing up to lead happy lives. This book was also made into a Lifetime movie in 2004.

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The Game of My Life

The Game of My Life: A True Story of Challenge, Triumph, and Growing Up Autistic was written by Jason "J-Mac" McElwain along with Daniel Paisner. J-Mac was a student with autism and a manager on his high school basketball team. During the last game of the season, the coach put him in the game, and J-Mac scored twenty points and broke a school record shooting six three pointers. He became a hero overnight. This is a story of a teenager's determination to overcome all the challenges of autism and play the best game of his life.

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Unstrange Minds

Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism by Roy Richard Grinker is about a father's quest for answers about why autism is so much more common today than ever before. He travels all over the world and to the National Institutes of Health and made controversial discoveries that changed his understanding of the disorder as well as his relationship with his daughter. He believes that autism is not an epidemic but rather a reflection of improved awareness. A thoughtful and compelling story of a father's experience of raising a daughter with autism.

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If not, check WorldCat and see if your local library has it.

The Boy Who Loved Windows

The Boy Who Loved Windows: Opening the Heart and Mind of a Child Threatened with Autism by Patricia Stacey gives hope and encouragement to parents with a child threatened with autism. The book begins with her son's prognosis and shares her experiences through a five year journey toward understanding Autism. This story is a personal narrative of a mother doing everything she can to try and give her son a rich and emotionally full life while struggling to keep her family in tact.

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Matthew's Enigma

Matei Calinescu has created a beautiful, loving memoir to his adored son in the book, Matthew's Enigma: A Father's Portrait of His Autistic Son. From the joy of Matthew's birth to the confusion of his diagnosis and the suddenness of his death at an early age, Calinescu takes us on his own personal journey through Matthew's life in a way that only a father can. Written in a thoughtful and inspiring tone, mostly in the forty days after Matthew's death, this book is a wonderful glimpse into the world of a family living with a child with autism.

Indiana residents interested in checking out this book can contact us. Those outside of Indiana can use worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.