Autism and Classical Myth: More live-blogging “outstanding books” for autistic young people

Why classical myth and autism?

Why classical myth and autism?

The idea for this project started to take shape at a meeting in 2008 with a special needs teacher, who mentioned that, in her experience and those of her colleagues, autistic children often enjoy classical myth. I began to wonder why this might be the case, and whether – as a classicist who researches, and loves, classical myth – there was anything I could contribute. I started this blog to report on my progress which was often sporadic until the launch of the Warsaw-based European Research Council-funded project Our Mythical Childhood (2016-22) to trace the role of classics in children’s culture.

My key contribution to the project is an exploration of classics in autistic children’s culture, above all by producing myth-themed activities for autistic children. This blog shares my progress, often along Herculean paths, including to a book of lessons for autistic children focusing on the Choice of Hercules between two very different paths in life. The image above, illustrating the homepage of this blog, is one of the drawings by Steve K. Simons, the book's illustrator, of a chimneypiece panel in a neoclassical villa at Roehampton in South West London. The lessons centre on this panel.

Tuesday, 14 December 2021

More live-blogging “outstanding books” for autistic young people - Part 2: This is my life

My last posting explained why I’ve decided to try something different blogging wise, namely what I’m terming (possibly reinventing the wheel!) “live blogging”. I must check…

Since then I’ve had encouraging feedback including my Myths and Mythology class, and… so… here’s Part 2.

In the first posting, I ran though the evaluation of the first entry that concerns "autism" in IBBY’s catalogue of “outstanding books” for disabled young people, namely IA uchus v chetvertom KRO (My special education class, grade 4). I ended by saying that I’d found the next match, to a book in Swedish translated into English as This is my life.

Image copied over from previous posting -
taken from @omchildhood announcing IBBY's catalogue

Here are the full details: Lagercrantz, Rose (text) Furmark, Annelie (ill.), Detta är mitt liv (This is my life) Stockholm, Sweden: Bonnier Carlsen Bökforlag, 2019 [112pp.] ISBN 978-91-7803-333-1

This book, unlike the previous one, focuses on a single child, a girl, called Sophia. A girl! So this book might fit the current move to recognise girls as autistic not least when so many women are diagnosed only as adults.

The girl, Sophia, the evaluation states, is about to turn 14 and “has always felt different” from the other children at her summer camp, either because of “typical teen insecurity” or “because she is autistic” (p. 35 – all quotations from the entry will be from this page).

The focus, I’m told, is on emotions Sophia feels as she prepares to convey to her fellow children at the camp what it is like to be her. The evaluation states that the format, a graphic novel, can aid in conveying the “emotions and reactions” of the characters, including Sophia’s mother.

So – a couple of things to note.

One is that, the book deals with how an autistic girl conveys what it is like to experience life as she does to other people. I am assuming non-autistic other people.

Also, as I’ve noted, the evaluation states that the graphic focus can provide a useful tool to convey emotions - but for whom I wonder: autistic young readers? or neurotypical young readers to help them understand autistic peers? adults like Sophia’s mother. Ah here is the possible answer, from the conclusion to the entry, which states that the book will “resonate not only with teens on the autistic spectrum, but also with any teen who has worried about fitting in”.

I think I like this – non-autistic people can learn from autistic people’s experience. It is not just the other way round...

The next match – to something in English, has an attention-grabbing title of Funny you don’t look autistic. I’ll live blog it as soon as I can! I’m at just over 400 words which is fine I think for a blog entry – though I do often go longer! – in any case…