"Sincerely, Your Autistic Child," by Emily Paige Ballou, Sharon daVanport, and Morénike Giwa Onaiwu

(The above "authors" are the editors of this compilation)

Genre: Non-fiction,

Page Count: 190+

Published: 2021 (Beacon Press)

Potential Triggers: mentions of LGBTQIA+

Mental Health Topics: Autism

The subtitle of this book was "What People on the Autism Spectrum Wish Their Parents Knew About Growing Up, Acceptance, and Identity," and let me tell you, that's exactly what they went over in this book. As far as compilations go, this is probably my favorite one that I've ever read, and I'll tell you why: it was written by people with genuine experiences being in or around the autistic community.

As a whole, this book includes many articles about autism, but as the subtitle said, it does focus primarily on the dos and don'ts of growing up, being accepted in society, and our overall identity. This includes many different approaches and views from the autistic community based on everyone's upbringing and understanding of the issues they grew up going through.

Though this book was originally written for autistic girls and their parents, the title was changed to "Sincerely, Your Autistic Child" under the belief that it would be suitable for autistics and non-autistics of any gender and relation. That is something I'm inclined to agree with. This book was all about autism in every shape, every size, every color, etc. Whatever box people try to put autism in, these authors exposed it and brought forward their truth if not the truth.

One thing that I will say that I noticed is that this book would be wonderful for parents of young autistics. If they're in their teen years, some of the learning opportunities they "guide through" may have already passed. That's not to say it's not still valuable information, but some of it doesn't apply as much as it could. But at the same time, if any autistic wanted their parent to know what it's like to go through what they did, just share the book and they'd be able to read all about it.

Something that I absolutely adored that the writers did in the book is they didn't use the word "retarded". This is a very real issue around autistics because the stereotypes often will state that autistics are retarded. The authors addressed this and also called it the dreaded "R-word." As an autistic myself, I really appreciated their approach to this hard topic.

Overall, this was a stellar read and it really felt good to read this and feel seen as who I am as an autistic. The writers of this truly captured what it's like to be autistic and they did it in a way that can be given to non-autistics and it'll be understood. This was a terrific read that I'd recommend it to just about anyone who truly wants to know more about autism. I can only hope that others will feel just as I did in reading this book.