Bad Animals (27 page)

On Autism

Collins, Paul.
Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism.
New York: Bloomsbury, 2004.

Cutler, Eustacia.
A Thorn in My Pocket: Temple Grandin's Mother Tells the Family Story.
Arlington, TX: Future Horizons, 2004.

Grandin, Temple.
Thinking in Pictures: And Other Reports on My Life with Autism.
New York: Doubleday, 1995.

_______.
The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism and Asperger's.
Arlington, TX: Future Horizons, 2008. This collection of magazine columns has practical advice on everything from dealing with bullying to learning to drive a car.

Grandin, Temple, and Maureen S. Scariano.
Emergence: Labelled Autistic.
New York: Warner Books, 1986.

Grinker, Roy Richard.
Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism.
New York: Basic Books, 2007.

Gutstein, Stephen E.
The RDI Book: Forging New Pathways for Autism, Asperger's and PDD with the Relationship Development Intervention Program.
Houston: Connections Center Publishing, 2009. Just so you know, I've made it to page seventy-five.

Haddon, Mark.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Toronto: Anchor Canada, 2004.

Hornby, Nick.
Songbook.
New York: Riverhead Books, 2003. Hornby's collection of essays on his favourite songs includes “Puff the Magic Dragon,” on Hornby's son Danny, who has autism.

Howard, Cori (ed.).
Between Interruptions: 30 Women Tell the Truth about Motherhood.
Toronto: Key Porter, 2007. This anthology includes Estée Klar's essay about her son.

Isaacson, Rupert.
The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son.
New York: Little, Brown, 2009.

Kaufman, Barry Neil.
Son-Rise.
New York: Harper and Row, 1976.

_______.
Son-Rise: The Miracle Continues.
Tiburon, CA: H.J. Kramer, 1994.

Lord, Cynthia.
Rules.
New York: Scholastic Press, 2006. A charming novel about a twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother who has autism; it's intended for grades four to seven.

Lovaas, O. Ivar.
Teaching Individuals with Developmental Delays: Basic Intervention Techniques.
Austin, TX: Pro-Ed Inc., 2003. This ABA manual is appropriately dedicated to “all parents of children with developmental delays in recognition of the heavy burdens they carry and the models they provide for all parents to follow.”

Moon, Elizabeth.
The Speed of Dark.
New York: Random House, 2003. This is a science-fiction novel which features a hero with autism.

Nazeer, Kamran.
Send in the Idiots: Stories from the Other Side of Autism.
London: Bloomsbury, 2006.

Page, Tim.
Parallel Play: Growing Up with Undiagnosed Asperger s.
New York: Doubleday, 2009.

Park, Clara Claiborne.
The Siege: A Family's Journey into the World of an Autistic Child.
Boston: Little, Brown, 1982.

_______.
Exiting Nirvana: A Daughter's Life with Autism.
Boston: Little, Brown, 2001.

Picoult, Jodi.
House Rules.
New York: Atria Books, 2010. This is an engaging if formulaic novel by a bestselling author who takes on topical themes. In this case, one of the novel's main characters has Asperger's and is also a murder suspect.

Sacks, Oliver.
Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales.
Toronto: Knopf Canada, 1995.

Tammet, Daniel.
Born on a Blue Day: A Memoir of Asperger's and an Extraordinary Mind.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2006. Tammet's sequel,
Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour across the Horizons of the Mind,
was published in 2009.

Williams, Donna.
Nobody Nowhere: The Extraordinary Autobiography of an Autistic.
Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1992. This is one of the early insider memoirs. Williams wrote three more memoirs:
Somebody Somewhere, Like Color to the Blind,
and
Everyday Heaven.

Other Sources

Berry, Joy.
Let's Talk About Complaining.
Danbury, CT: Grolier, 1982.

Brown, Ian.
The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son.
Toronto: Random House Canada, 2009. This memoir isn't specifically about autism, but it is a bravely written book about being the father of a son with special needs.

Chabon, Michael.
Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son.
New York: HarperCollins, 2009.

De Vries, Peter.
The Blood of the Lamb.
Boston: Little, Brown, 1961.

Dyer, Geoff.
Out of Sheer Rage: In the Shadow of D.H Lawrence.
London: Abacus, 1997.

Elkin, Stanley.
The Living End.
New York: E.P. Dutton, 1979.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott.
The Crack-Up.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1931.

Geisel, Theodor.
Horton Hears a Who!
New York: Random House Books for Young Readers, 1954.

_______.
Green Eggs and Ham.
New York: Beginner Books, 1960.

Gilmour, David.
The Film Club: A True Story of a Father and a Son.
Toronto: Thomas Allen, 2007. This is a frank and charming father-son love story.

Humphreys, Josephine.
The Fireman's Fair
. New York: Penguin, 1991. I also recommend Humphreys's earlier novels,
Dreams of Sleep
and
Rich in Love.

Joyce, James.
Ulysses.
London: Penguin Classic, 2000 (New Edition).

Kingsley, Jason, and Mitchell Levitz.
Count Us In: Growing Up with Down Syndrome.
Orlando, FL: A Harvest Book, 1994. This is the book co-written by the son of Emily Perl Kingsley, author of “Welcome to Holland.”

Menaker, Daniel.
A Good Talk: The Story and Skill of Conversation.
New York: Twelve, 2010.

Pinker, Susan.
The Sexual Paradox: Extreme Men, Gifted Women and the Real Gender Gap.
Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2008.

Roth, Philip.
Patrimony: A True Story.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991.

Schwartz, Lynne Sharon.
Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.

Shields, Carol.
Unless.
Toronto: Random House, 2002.

Excerpts from
Bad Animals,
in somewhat different form, appeared in
Maisonneuve Magazine
(Spring 2008) as well as
The Malahat Review
(Winter 2008) and the anthology
In Other Words: New English Writing from Quebec
(Vehicule Press, 2008). An early version of the chapter “What You Need” was also broadcast on CBC Radio's
Cinq a Six.
I gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council and Quebec's Conseil des Arts. Special thanks to the Quebec Writers' Federation, especially Lori Schubert, as well as to my colleagues in the Literary Journalism Program at The Banff Centre, in particular to my editors there, Marni Jackson and Don Gillmor.

If it doesn't exactly take a village to raise a child, it takes a lot of people working hard. I am grateful to all of Jonah's therapists and teachers over the years. As well, my thanks to the Friendship Circle and Mrs. Rudski at Kumon. Our families—in particular Cynthia's parents and my sisters—have had our backs, as always. And Sybil Kramer remains an inspiration. My thanks to the friends who have listened to me whine about this book pretty much forever; they are numerous, but a few should be singled out for their occasionally contradictory mix of good sense and encouragement. A few have made more of a difference than they probably know: Mark Abley, Julie Bruck, Bryan Demchinsky, Dawn Rae Downton, David Homel, Elaine Kalman Naves, Scott Lawrence, and Monique Polak.

Helen Reeves has provided invaluable assistance in helping me give shape to this story. Everyone at Penguin has been a pleasure to work with. John Pearce, at Westwood Creative Artists, has provided expert guidance and judgment. Finally, this book is dedicated to my wife and my son, but that hardly does justice to their part in its writing—their constant and sometimes unsuspecting collaboration. What's best in
Bad Animals
I owe to them.