Being Autistic {Book Review}

There's a new book on my shelves, called Being Autistic, and I honestly think it's one of my favourites! Written by Niamh Garvey and illustrated by Rebecca Burgess, this book is different to most, and that's part of the appeal.

(The pictures and book titles in this post contain affiliate links; as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases but it won't cost you any extra)

Being Autistic (and what that actually means) is a fully illustrated, graphic guide 'to understanding who you are and what it means to be autistic'. Great for anyone who would like to understand more about autism, but particularly aimed at and accessible for children and young people who might be at the stage of trying to make sense of themselves. 

Niamh Garvey is an autistic author, and mum to three neurodivergent children. She has worked as nurse and has a Diploma in Autism Studies. Her previous books include Looking After Your Autistic Self: A Personalised Self-Care Approach to Managing Your Sensory and Emotional Well-Being, and The Autistic Guide to Communicating and Connecting: Understanding our Communication Differences and Social Needs (both of these are also available as audiobooks).

Rebecca Burgess is an autistic award-winning comic artist and illustrator. Their previous titles include Speak Up!, and How to Be Ace, along with several other book illustration credits. 

The book is split up into four main parts, with the various aspects listed below all discussed:

 

One: Welcome to being autistic!

Finding out you are autistic
What is neurodiversity?
What does it mean to be autistic?

Part Two: Autistic traits
Predictability
Sensory experiences
Communication confusion
Special interests
Social stuff
Feelings
Learning styles
Organisation frustration
Creativity
Body movement

Part Three: Other things some autistic people have
Dyspraxia/developmental coordination disorder (DCD)
Dyslexia
Dyscalculia
ADHD
Hypermobility
Learning difficulties

Part Four: Now you know what it means to be autistic… What’s next?

Part One is a positive start, consisting of a few pages explaining clearly how everyone is an individual, and that the world is made up of many different brains and types of people. Following that, some of these topics making up the list of contents above are broken down even further. For example, 'Communication confusion' (which is one of the larger sections at 30 pages long) looks at non-autistic communication, conversations, conversation clues, tone of voice, body language, facial expressions, eye contact, silly sayings, jokes, sarcasm, and trouble with talking. In 'social stuff', the writers give thoughts on socialising, predictable socialising, masking, social exhaustion and social games.

I thought it could be helpful to share a few examples of the illustrated pages:

Feelings - "Sometimes autistic people find it really hard to know what their internal senses are trying to tell them. We might know we feel something, but not know what that something is!"

"It's raining cats & dogs - It's thought that this saying began in England (a long, long time ago), before city streets had drainage systems to collect rainwater. When it rained heavily, the roads would flood, and carry stray cats and dogs along in the floods. It therefore looked as if it had rained cats and dogs."

Emotions - "Even emotions that are supposed to feel good can make us feel all wrong beacuse we feel them so strongly. When our emotions become too big, we can feel overhwlemed. When we are overwhelmed, we might not be able to do the normal things we usually do, like sleep, eat, drink or communicate."

Meltdowns - "When some (but not all) autistic people get totally overwhelmed by their emotions, sometimes they can have a meltdown."

Being Autistic was written with autistic readers in mind, but it can also teach non-autistic children much about autism. It has been produced with dyslexia friendly text and layout, and there is at least one (sometimes more!) illustration on every page, serving to break up a big wall of text that might feel daunting to some children. Great for visual thinkers. The illustrations are of characters that you get to know as the book goes along, and silly scenarios that will often make you smile. It's a happy, fun book, with positivity flowing out of it, highlighting strengths and celebrating neurodiversity. Both Niamh and Rebecca are late-diagnosed autistic adults, and their lived, personal experiences bring true authenticty to this book.

Available now from Jessica Kingsley Publishers or from Amazon:

Being Autistic (Paperback) or Being Autistic (Kindle version)