THE TEN BEST BOOKS FOR UNDERSTANDING AUTISM
SEE ALSO: different, feeling • routine, unable to cope with a change in the
awkward
SEE: shyness • tall, being
1 When tackling serious ailments, always read a book through to the end yourself before sharing it with a child. The picture books recommended here are written to capture what it can be like to experience violence in the home and unless the content bears some resemblance to the child’s own experience, it may disturb more than reassure.
2 This moving story about a teenage girl who becomes hooked on drugs after unwittingly taking LSD at a party – originally claimed to be taken from an actual diary but since acknowledged by its author, psychologist Beatrice Sparks, to be a work of fiction – contains explicit material. Full of compassion for the angst of adolescence, we recommend it as a cautionary tale about the dangers of drug use; but be sure your teen is ready.
3 Best enjoyed after having read the previous two titles in the Earthsea cycle.
4 Adventures are to chapter books as gin is to tonic. How could we restrict ourselves?
5 Yes, you read that right. The centipede would like others to believe he has the full quotient of a hundred feet, as his name would suggest. But, as Dahl clearly knew, most centipedes in fact do not.
6 We did say our cures were ‘almost’ always fiction.
7 By, respectively, Sam McBratney, illustrated by Anita Jeram; Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd; the Rev. W Awdry; and Arnold Lobel.
8 By Daniel Defoe.
B IS FOR . . .
baby, being a
We’ve all been there – some more recently than others. See our lists below.
THE TEN BEST BOOKS FOR BABIES
THE TEN BEST PICTURE BOOKS FOR RHYTHM AND RHYME
THE TEN BEST TOUCHY-FEELY BOOKS