Autism Awareness Month

I haven't read a lot of books involving autism, but one that always comes to the forefront of my mind is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.  This book is told from the point of view of 15-year-old autistic boy, Christopher.  My favorite part of this book is seeing the world through the eyes of an autistic person.  Getting to see how his brain works, how it perceives the world around his, and how he relates to others.  It was so eyeopening for me to get that better understanding, from the inside instead of from simple observation of autistic individuals in my life.  I read this book before I was even aware there was a spectrum and before I had ever heard of Asperger's Syndrome.  I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who had limited exposure to that world before reading this book.  I've seen Rain Man and various other shows/movies depicting autistic characters, but it wasn't until I was able to glimpse inside the autistic mind that I was truly able to understand their world just a little better.  This book is a work of fiction, but the author had years of working with autistic people as a reference into their minds.  This book shows how one little change in a person's life can really throw everything off balance.  How everyone's reality is different from that of others.  This month is all about becoming more aware of autism.  The prevalence is growing and I bet there is hardly anybody out there anymore who is not affected by autism in someway.  We all know at least one person on the autism spectrum.  If you want to understand them better, this is a great book to start you on that path.  While not every autistic person is the same, I bet at least one of Christopher's traits will hit home for you.  This is a great book to try out this month.  Happy reading!