What’s In Your Library?
November 27, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Books, Reading
Among the books about autism at the public library in our town are this, this, and this—I’ve put in requests for a few other things.
To be very honest, we rarely visit our library. While there’s no lack for books of every sort at our house, Charlie’s not a reader. I was interested to read about a program called Project Inclusion, which is described in the November 26th Wausau Daily Herald (Wisconsin):
Project Inclusion’s overall goal is for the participating libraries to “take a proactive stance to address the literacy needs of children with disabilities and to make libraries meaningful and welcoming places for these children and their families.” Special emphasis was placed on adding materials especially for and about children on the autism spectrum.
These materials include a book called My Best Friend Will by fifth-grader Jamie Lowell and teacher Tara Tuchel; it’s about Jamie’s friendship with Will, who’s autistic and who she’s known since kindergarten. Other materials include DVDs like Know the Code and Skill Building Buddies; Emotes! a new book series designed to help children process and understand their emotions with Manga-style graphics; books from the publisher Orca and also a series called Steady Readers; and visual timers (perhaps like some of these?).
Which leads me to the question—what autism books are on the shelves of your library? Or what books would you like to see?
Jeff Stimpson
Jill Cornfield
I just bought Different Like Me: My Book of Autism Heroes.
Sounds like there’s a militant “mercury mom” working at your library.I would suggest you donate a couple of copies of “Autism’s False Prophets”,or go online,and get a used copy or two of Richard Pollak’s “The Creation of Dr.B”.
Yes, I need to give them a wishlist.
here in the ozarks we have very, very little. it’s depressing.
one local woman actually self-published a book about autism; she drives around with a pile of them in the back of her car, selling them when she gets a chance. it’s dreadful, filled with stereotypes and misinformation. the local library has that one and nothing else as far as I know.
i want to print out copies of your posts, collect them in a binder and make the library put that on their shelves, make sure a little good, positive info is available here.
I was thinking about Son Rise today (while driving) - wondering if it fit in with any current thinking. I read it - had to have been 25 years ago, or more. Since you have it coupled with JM’s book, I take it that Son Rise went down the alternative path?
The two books next to my bed right now are: Asperger’s from the Inside Out by Carley and The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome by Attwood. I read slow - so if these are poor references, just let me know and I won’t bother.
We live in a fairly large city, and the library system is broadly stocked. Our family gets its city taxes back on library use alone.
My tiny rural library has no books on autism that I’m aware of. But they consider Patrick an important member of the community and do everything they can to accomodate his needs when he’s visiting. I’m going to read ‘My Best Friend Will” next, I think.
Our library has some really great selections for reading on autism and a lot of what they don’t have, I can get through a local non-profit’s library - you give them your request, they send out the book with a pre-paid postage envelope included to send back in two weeks. Not a bad deal.
We visit our library a few times a month. It helps that our library is very nice. We can put books on hold on the computer which I love doing…makes it so much easier.
Autism Life Skills by Chantal Sicile-Kira is now one of my favorites.
The Flutie Foundation has provided a wonderful resource in our local library. Some of my personal favorites are:
-Susan Senator’s Making Peace with Autism
-Lynne Kern Koegel’s Overcoming Autism
-Anything by Temple Grandin
-Stephen Shore’s Autism for Dummies
-Pete Wright’s From Emotions to Advocacy
Several really worthwhile books recently published:
– Paul Offit’s _Autism’s False Prophets_, as mentioned already above;
– Roy Grinker’s _Unstrange Minds_
– Ralph Savarese’s _Reasonable People_
And then a couple that should be in libraries because pricing (in one case) and availability (in the other) works against their gaining the circulation they deserve through Amazon or bookstore sales:
– _Sharing Our Wisdom_, eds. Sandra McClennen, Ph.D, & Gail Gillingham — an anthology of writing by autistic adults and young adults, most of whom communicate by keyboarding. It’s available through the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability.
– _Autism and Representation_, ed. Mark Osteen, Ph.D — an anthology of essays from a groundbreaking conference held back in 2005 at Case Western Reserve University, by people in several different fields, ranging from anthropology and sociology, to literary and film criticism, to neuroscience, about the ways in which we conceptualize and respond to autism. The anthology was published by Routledge academic press, but it’s priced as a textbook, which unfortunately is a disincentive for widespread sales to the general public. (Full disclosure: I am a contributor of one of the essays in this volume. And so is Kristina. Neither of us derive royalties from its sale.)
One of the libraries in our county has its own used bookstore, one that sells books people have donated. On the shelves there I found Daniel Tammett’s autobiography Born on a Blue Day, which I bought but haven’t read yet.
That library also has several books by Temple Grandin, and Stephen Shore’s Beyond the Wall, though it also has two of Jenny McCarthy’s books. (Ack!)
The SGC Library System has an exhaustive collection of all the very worst “autism” books available, with Jenny McBunny’s pedestrian screeds being among the most popular (Greene County is, after all, the home of the NAA). They also have a quite impressive selection of the merely mundane.
But they do have a smattering of good titles that seem to have slipped in under the radar. Every month or so, I suggest a new title for acquisition, and they have yet to disappoint. The most recent addition included in its dedication such names as Kristina Chew and Kathleen Seidel, among others…
I’ve made a list and checked it twice! Thanks so much for hosting this discussion, Kristina!
@dkmnow,
thanks for the overview and the suggestions!—-and thanks to Barbara and all—-also good holiday gift suggestions here……..