I'd read some of the pro- and anti- reviews of this book by an autistic 13-year-old Japanese boy before I sat down to read it, so I had some context of the surrounding controversy before I jumped in (so to speak). Basically, some people have criticized novelist David Mitchell for possibly embellishi

5★
“But when I’m jumping, it’s as if my feelings are going upward to the sky. Really, my urge to be swallowed up by the sky is enough to make my heart quiver.
. . .
But constrained both by ourselves and by the people around us, all we can do is tweet-tweet, flap our wings and hop around in a cage. Ah,

My eldest son has Asperger's syndrome and, while not locked into wordlessness in the same way the author was when he was little, he shares some of the behaviours described in this book, most notably the one on the cover: he jumps. He also intersperses that with bouncing up and down on a large gym ba

Author David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas, The Bone Clocks, Slade House) came upon this book from Japan in his and his wife’s quest to better understand their 3-year-old son with autism. It’s the writing of a 13-year-old boy whose autism is severe but has learned to communicate using an alphabet grid. In M

This is a great book to be written by someone of any age, and the fact that it is written by a 13 year old is amazing. The book reads like a FAQ of questions that anybody, especially a parent of children with Autism or Asperger Syndrome, have asked/shouted at their children about why they keep doing

3.5 stars

This book was intriguing! I'm taking it with a grain of salt, though, because I've been monitoring reviews about it. First I'll talk about my thoughts, though, then address concerns. I thought this book was wonderful. The writing was lovely with a lot of insightful analogies and heartwarmin