“I didn’t want to be inspirational; I just wanted to be funny.” Happily he manages to be both.
A breezy, upbeat memoir from a 22-year-old Canadian autism advocate and stand-up comic.
Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at age 5, McCreary is quite unlike the stereotypical Aspie (a term he uses interchangeably with autistic person, person on the spectrum, and similar phrases): hopeless at math but extroverted, verbose, and in love with performing. He repeatedly emphasizes that ASD manifests differently in everyone—indeed, his younger brother, also autistic, is in many ways his polar opposite. He recounts his journey to his dream of becoming a professional comedian, including triumphs and humiliations, family, teachers, friends, and enemies, all in a wry, self-deprecating voice peppered with innumerable pop-culture references and relentless optimism. Along the way, he provides an intimate glimpse of one autistic person’s inner life, highlighting common experiences, explaining widespread coping mechanisms, and demolishing popular misconceptions. Some readers might yearn for his advantages of economic means, supportive community, and excellent, well-funded special needs programs in the public schools; still, he acknowledges his struggles with living independently and that some persons with ASD may never achieve that. Nonetheless, the hard-won lessons he shares—be understanding, don’t judge, live for the moment, never give up, and “shut up and listen”—are worthwhile for autistic and neurotypical alike.
“I didn’t want to be inspirational; I just wanted to be funny.” Happily he manages to be both. (Memoir. 12-18)Pub Date: March 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77321-257-9
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
Written with the authority of a fine writer with an inquiring mind, this dramatic story is history writing at its best.
In fascinating detail, Aronson tells the story of America during J. Edgar Hoover’s reign as head of the FBI and “the nearly fifty years of criminal activity that was his legacy.”
For today’s students, communism and anti-communism are “just terms that appear on tests, like the Whig, Greenback, or Know-Nothing parties,” but this volume brings alive the drama of the Cold War period and demonstrates its significance for readers now. Taking his title from Hoover’s 1958 work on the dangers of communism, Aronson writes about the dangers of a “security at all costs” mentality during the Cold War and, by extension, our post-9/11 world. He covers a large slice of history—the Palmer raids of 1919, the gangster era, the Scottsboro case, World War II, the Rosenbergs, Joseph McCarthy, the civil rights movement and Watergate—but this is no mere recitation of the facts; it’s a masterpiece of historical narrative, with the momentum of a thrilling novel and the historical detail of the best nonfiction. With references as far-flung as Karl Marx, Stalin, Wordsworth, American Idol, The Hunger Games and The Lord of the Rings, this is as much about how history is written as it is about Hoover and his times. Extensive backmatter includes fascinating comments on the research, thorough source notes that are actually interesting to read and a lengthy bibliography.
Written with the authority of a fine writer with an inquiring mind, this dramatic story is history writing at its best. (Nonfiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5025-4
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2012
Informative, revealing, powerful and necessary.
Kuklin (No Choirboy, 2008, etc.) brings her intimate, compassionate and respectful lens to the stories of six transgender young people.
In verbal and, when the subjects have given permission, visual profiles, readers meet transgender teens with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. They hear from teens who identify fully as female or male, teens who identify as neither male nor female, and one teen who is intersex. Their stories are told largely in the teens’ own words, with only a few italicized interpolations to clarify or contextualize a point or to describe a facial expression or inflection readers cannot see or hear. In photographs, readers see Nat, who attends a performing-arts high school in New York City and uses the personal gender pronouns them and they, carrying their violin on New York’s High Line. Christina, who attends Fashion Institute of Technology, is pictured shopping for clothes, proudly displaying a school project and hugging her mother. Images of the young people before their transitions are often included but, appropriately, do not serve as focal points for their chapters. Similarly, sex and genitalia are discussed frankly but are rarely what matters most. The collective portrait that emerges from these narratives and pictures is diverse, complex and occasionally self-contradictory—as any true story should be.
Informative, revealing, powerful and necessary. (author’s note, glossary, resource list) (Nonfiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5611-9
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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