Book #6

look me in the eye (my life with asperger's) by John Elder Robison
103 pages in
Nonfiction
My mom gave me this book to read because she thought it was very interesting and she thought I would like it. She was right. It's about this boy, John Elder, who grew up knowing something was wrong with him but not knowing what. He later found out that he had Asperger's Syndrome. In case you have no idea what Asperger's is, I will tell you. Asperger's is a mild form of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Asperger's mainly affects boys and they can't understand social cues and facial expressions. My cousin, August, has this disorder. Some people think that because he has Asperger's that he is mentally retarded, but he is very smart. He can tell you every single stat for every single NFL football player, no joke. He used to be really into trains until he was about ten and now it's football and video games. John Elders thing is cars and guitars. He was also very good at taking anything electronic apart and making it better. People with Asperger's, like I said earlier, cannot take social cues so they have a hard time making friends, they also bob and weave unknowingly. John Elder has an especially hard time with names, he calls his mom Slave and his father Stupid and his little brother Varmint. The memoir is dedicated to Unit Two and Cubby, who I found out are his wife and son. When I am reading about the things that John Elder does it reminds me so much of my cousin and I am glad that he was diagnosed at a young age unlike John Elder because I would not want August to live like that.