“Many people see Ferdinand as a pacifist. I see him as a bull on the autism spectrum: confined to a private world, comforted by his rituals.” Children’s librarian and mom of a son with autism, Ashley Waring writes about her struggles with and strategies for engaging her child in books in her article, “Reading on […]
On Ashley Waring’s “Reading on the Spectrum” (from Sept/Oct 2010)
Leave Your Sleep: Natalie Merchant on Childhood
While marketed as a two-volume music CD with an accompanying booklet, Natalie Merchant’s Leave Your Sleep might be better understood as a fascinating anthology of children’s poetry accompanied by biographical notes and two CDs on which each of the twenty-six poems is set to music. But it is even more than that. Leave Your Sleep […]
Reading on the Spectrum
Life with my two young sons is a study in contrasts. Alden (almost five) is high-strung; Griffin (my two-year-old) is mellow. Alden couldn’t care less about food; Griffin lives to eat. Alden keeps to himself; Griffin never stops talking. Alden has autism; Griffin does not. That last contrast is a biggie, and undoubtedly a contributing […]
What Makes a Good Book for All Ages?
My many years of book reviewing have taught me that most books labeled “for all ages” are anything but. Such books are generally big and richly illustrated (and expensive); they tend toward the parabolic, offering “life lessons” of one sort or another. In short, they are books for adults with a weakness for cheap piety. […]