The Reason I Jump
The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism
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4.6 • 38 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
A story never before told and a memoir to help change our understanding of the world around us, 13-year-old Naoki Higashida's astonishing, empathetic book takes us into the mind of a boy with severe autism. With an introduction by David Mitchell, author of the global phenomenon, Cloud Atlas, and translated by his wife, KA Yoshida.
Naoki Higashida was only a middle-schooler when he began to write The Reason I Jump. Autistic and with very low verbal fluency, Naoki used an alphabet grid to painstakingly spell out his answers to the questions he imagines others most often wonder about him: why do you talk so loud? Is it true you hate being touched? Would you like to be normal? The result is an inspiring, attitude-transforming book that will be embraced by anyone interested in understanding their fellow human beings, and by parents, caregivers, teachers, and friends of autistic children. Naoki examines issues as diverse and complex as self-harm, perceptions of time and beauty, and the challenges of communication, and in doing so, discredits the popular belief that autistic people are anti-social loners who lack empathy.
This book is mesmerizing proof that inside an autistic body is a mind as subtle, curious, and caring as anyone else's.
Customer Reviews
Remarkable
This book completely changed my view on autistic people. Every waking moment they are fighting a battle and we all need to know this. I’m glad I now do. Thank you Naoki for your toughness and bravery.
Mindblowingly insightful, I had no idea.
Everyone in society should read this book. It gives us all a look inside the working mind of a person living day to day with autism.
This helped me understand how the mind works and why it reacts in such a way, it all makes sense, I understand. It's just a different wavelength we need to understand and this book does it.
What an incredible breakthrough.
Great read - excellent!
The Reason I Jump should be read by everyone who knows, lives with, cares for, works with, teaches, or loves, a person who has Autism. The author unfolds the answers, one by one, to many questions people have about the difficulties experienced by those living with Autism, and relates his thoughts in stories that help us to understand. A great read, from the heart, of a young boy reaching out to help us understand his plight, and sharing his hope, that we will come to have understanding for those living in the world of Autism and stand by them.