Zoom Autism Magazine Issue 1 Fall 2014 | Page 49

2 3 Finding Kansas: Living and Decoding Asperger’s Syndrome by Aaron Likens Perigee Trade 1st edition (April 3, 2012) Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew by Ellen Notbohm Future Horizons 1st edition (January 1, 2005) While this is Aaron’s unique story, he writes with a style that is easily relatable, insightful and humorous. He portrays himself as an average, every-day man, living in the middle class Midwest. He provides amazing insight into his day-to-day life, sharing small successes and huge breakthroughs, like his self-discovery of building and maintaining personal relationships. With every experience Aaron shares, he reveals how his inner thoughts process the incoming information and the associations that his brain makes. Aaron’s amazing and unique perspective provides inspiration and hope for a bright future for those with autism spectrum disorders such as Asperger’s syndrome. What makes this book so practical and useful is how the whole of autism is concisely broken into ten very important and relevant “bullet points” and then expanded upon on each of those points chapter by chapter. Ten Things enlightens the reader on ten characteristics of children on the autism spectrum without specifically defining every child. The material is presented in an insightful, compassionate, and sometimes humorous way that helps to give us a peek into autism from a child’s point of view. In this way the reader can glean helpful insight that enables a better understanding of autistic children. Zoom Autism Through Many Lenses 49