GoodReads Monday – 21st December 2020

Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren’s Page Turners. To participate, choose a random book from your TBR and show it off! Don’t forget to link back to the creator of the meme, Lauren.

Happy Monday everyone! I though I’d start the week off by highlighting a book on my GoodReads TBR. I currently have 920 book on my Want-To-Read list which I know is endless. However, I feel if I start looking at it regularly I might end up cleaning it up while I scroll through looking for that one book to highlight. So here to a clean-up side affect 😉

This week I dug out The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida

Written by Naoki Higashida, a very smart, very self-aware, and very charming thirteen-year-old boy with autism, it is a one-of-a-kind memoir that demonstrates how an autistic mind thinks, feels, perceives, and responds in ways few of us can imagine. Parents and family members who never thought they could get inside the head of their autistic loved one, at last, have a way to break through to the curious, subtle, and complex life within.

Using an alphabet grid to painstakingly construct words, sentences, and thoughts that he is unable to speak out loud, Naoki answers even the most delicate questions that people want to know. Questions such as: “Why do people with autism talk so loudly and weirdly?” “Why do you line up your toy cars and blocks?” “Why don’t you make eye contact when you’re talking?” and “What’s the reason you jump?” (Naoki’s answer: “When I’m jumping, it’s as if my feelings are going upward to the sky.”) With disarming honesty and a generous heart, Naoki shares his unique point of view on not only autism but life itself. His insights—into the mystery of words, the wonders of laughter, and the elusiveness of memory—are so startling, so strange, and so powerful that you will never look at the world the same way again.

Have you read this? What did you think?

Until next time.