A detailed, valuable introduction to one family’s experience of autism.
A mother explores autism in this illustrated alphabet book.
Using each letter of the alphabet as a starting point for multiple themes, Haendiges depicts her family’s experiences with her son Ollie’s autism and how it makes him special. As she travels through the alphabet, one core theme resonates: “It is important to know that our neurodiverse kids are not sick; they are just wired differently.” Starting with apple (Ollie only likes green apples because of the way he processes the world) and ASL, which the boy uses to communicate more smoothly, the author immerses readers in a detailed journey. She discusses big topics like sensory processing, sensory dysregulation, proprioceptive sense, vestibular sense, and neurodiversity. Haendiges fully explains each of these subjects, making big ideas approachable for young listeners and readers. The text on each page is quite dense, often with multiple words associated with the letter on each two-page spread. Some, like checklist for X—because Ollie and his sister, Rosie, mark off tasks from their daily lists with an X—offer insight into techniques that help the family members manage their days. Haendiges delves into the complexity of transitioning and how Ollie’s unique way of experiencing the world has changed her strategies as a parent. She also doesn’t shy away from discussing Rosie’s struggles as a big sister. Rosie is Ollie’s champion, but she can sometimes feel left out when he is the center of attention. The author strives for inclusion in the text, using Ollie and Rosie as her touchstones while focusing on how everyone has an individual experience. Haendiges’ vibrant illustrations feature one image associated with the letter, which is also spelled out in ASL. The detailed, colorful hands (sometimes with painted or decorated nails) are wrinkly to emphasize their shapes; the forms of the ASL letters are clear and easy to mimic. While this text is too complex for most young readers despite the author’s efforts to use simple sentences, families wishing to understand neurodiversity can take this worthwhile journey together.
A detailed, valuable introduction to one family’s experience of autism.Pub Date: June 16, 2022
ISBN: 9781647045326
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Bublish, Incorporated
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Enthusiastic and direct, this paean has a lovely ring to it.
Former National Youth Poet Laureate Gorman invites girls to raise their voices and make a difference.
“Today, we finally have a say,” proclaims the first-person plural narration as three girls (one presents Black, another is brown-skinned, and the third is light-skinned) pass one another marshmallows on a stick around a campfire. In Wise’s textured, almost three-dimensional illustrations, the trio traverse fantastical, often abstract landscapes, playing, demonstrating, eating, and even flying, while confident rhymes sing their praises and celebrate collective female victories. The phrase “LIBERATION. FREEDOM. RESPECT” appears on a protest sign that bookends their journey. Simple and accessible, the rhythmic visual storytelling presents an optimistic vision of young people working toward a better world. Sometimes family members or other diverse comrades surround the girls, emphasizing that power comes from community. Gorman is careful to specify that “some of us go by she / And some of us go by they.” She affirms, too, that each person is “a different shape and size,” though the art doesn’t show much variation in body type. Characters also vary in ability. Real-life figures emerge as the girls dream of past luminaries such as author Octavia Butler and activist Marsha P. Johnson, along with present-day role models including poet and journalist Plestia Alaqad and athlete Sha’carri Richardson; silhouettes stand in for heroines as yet unknown. Imagining that “we are where change is going” is hopeful indeed.
Enthusiastic and direct, this paean has a lovely ring to it. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593624180
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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