The Reason I Jump: A 13 Year Old Boy Answers Questions on Autism

United States
November 24, 2015 6:37pm CST
I recently started reading the book "The Reason I Jump" by Naoki Higashida, which is a question-and-answer format novel of him explaining his autism to the world at large, mainly through the help of a computer and author David Mitchell. He tackles questions like "Why do people with autism talk so loudly and weirdly?" and "Why are your facial expressions so limited?" A brief excerpt, to entice you to head down to your local library and check it out: Q32. When you look at something, what do you see first? "What part of the whole image captures our eyes first depends on a number of things. When a color is vivid or a shape is eye-catching, then that's the detail that claims our attention, and then our hearts kind of drown in it, and we can't concentrate on anything else." "... and then our hearts kind of drown in it" - isn't that just so beautifully expressed? It really has been an eye-opening read, short and very informative, and I highly recommend it to anyone who would like to understand the disorder more from the perspective of an individual who has it.
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1 response
@JudyEv (326351)
• Rockingham, Australia
25 Nov 15
This sounds a wonderful book. I'll look out for it. Another which I found really absorbing was 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' written from the perspective of a boy with autism. It is very enlightening. I believe it's been made into a film now. And yes, that's a beautiful expression.
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• United States
1 Dec 15
I'll have to check out your recommendation at my local library as well! I saw the book awhile ago but never looked into it, so thank you! :)
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@JudyEv (326351)
• Rockingham, Australia
1 Dec 15
@chelseaearnsmore The title put me off for a while till someone said it was a great read.
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• United States
1 Dec 15
@JudyEv The title actually always peaked my interest, but I always had other books to read and I never got around to checking it out. I'm glad you decided to check it out at someone else's request :)
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