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Jan14
Picture Books, Anyone?
Filed under: Childhood, Picture Books;7 CommentsWhen my daughter was young and we were homeschooling, I bought lots and lots of children’s books. I especially enjoyed buying used picture books. As my daughter got older and left the era of picture books behind her, I couldn’t bring myself to part with them. I loved having them, but I kept wondering why. Was it nostalgia? Was I unable to let go of my daughter’s childhood? I wasn’t sure.
In the past few months, I’ve found myself buying children’s books from the thrift store where I volunteer. In the beginning, I chose books that we had owned and given away. When I brought them home, I put my daughter’s name in each of them, even though she had no interest in them at all.
Then I started reading Women From Another Planet? edited by Jean Kearns Miller. In it, there is an interesting discussion of the difference between Aspie and NT developmental trajectories. The book suggests that for some Aspies, the developmental sequence does not go from babyhood to childhood to adolescence to adulthood, as it does for most NTs. Rather, some of us Aspies maintain certain aspects of our childlike minds even as we develop more mature mental abilities:
“It seems that as an NT grows up, something called brain cell pruning take place—some areas of the brain atrophy in order to produce the normal NT adult. I don’t think that’s happened with me, which is why some people think of me as childish because I still have pleasure in many of the things I had as a child. Perhaps people sometimes mistakenly think that because the childlike parts of my mind have not atrophied, that the adult parts of my mind have not developed, which is incorrect.” (Kearns, 22)
Reading this section broke open my love for children’s books. I thought, “Hey, wait a minute! I love those books. I’m putting MY name in them.” And I have. I’ve even been reading one or two of these books every day. And whenever I see a beautiful children’s picture book, whether it’s about a Jewish holiday or the weather or a folk tale from Africa, I pick it up.
In the process, I’ve also rediscovered my love of reading biographies. When I was a child, I read nearly every biography on the shelves of our grammar school library. Recently, I found an autobiography by Willie O’Ree, the first black player in the National Hockey League. It’s directed at middle-schoolers, and I loved it, especially because he mentions hockey players that I admired when I was a child. I hadn’t thought about those names in many years. The book brought back a host of very good memories.
As I think back, I find I have few memories of reading picture books as a child. I was a self-taught reader by the time I started school, and by the sixth grade I was reading Of Human Bondage and The Grapes of Wrath. So perhaps my developmental trajectory was to start with the serious works of literature, earn two English degrees, and end up with the children’s books. I rarely indulge my Aspie penchant for collecting things (I hate clutter) but with the children’s books, I’ll gladly make an exception.
© 2009 by Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg
7 Responses to “Picture Books, Anyone?”
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as usual it is very good to read.
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I just discovered your blog today, and I’m hooked. I’ve already added it to my blogroll.
I’m looking forward to reading more.I’m a 30-something self-diagnosed Aspie. I suspect my Dad is an Aspie, and that my daughter is too. And my wonderful husband has to put up with us all!
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Hey Quirky Mom, glad to see you here.
I’m pretty sure my dad was an Aspie as well, but my daughter and husband are both NT. Fortunately, they are both very adaptable by nature, so we all do well together!
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I’m NT with 14 year old Aspie daughter. I wish she had interest in bios! She has little capacity (?) or, at least interest in anything other than cartoons. It has been a real struggle for me.
As for picture books there are a lot of adults not on the spectrum who love them. Many people who either take the time or, perhaps have some language struggles (this can come with LD, ADHD and a host of other “problems”) collect children’s picture books.
Are you familiar with Patricia Polacco? I discovered her in my daughter’s elem.school library when I spied the title “Mrs Katz and Tusch”. It brought me to tears! “Thank You Mr. Falker” is my other favorite.
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Hi Mim,
So good to see you here!
I discovered Patricia Polacco’s books when I was homeschooling my daughter, and we loved all of them. “Mrs. Katz and Tush” was one of our favorites, along with “Tikveh Means Hope.”
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John Dale Lyons January 26th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Even though I have a PhD in “serious” literature, I still enjoy picture books. My mother, who became a psychologist partly because of me, recognizes this. She gave me a wonderful book I sometimes read before I go to bed: “All Cats have Aspergers.”
My childlike qualities both delight and frustrate the NTs around me, depending on the circumstance. But I find it helps me be a better teacher.
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how funny! same trajectory with reading material.
i love children’s books. when i find one i think is especially beautiful, i just get this hush inside—everything goes quiet. it’s a sort of awe, and it’s the same awe and sense of quiet i felt when it was story time, and someone was reading to me. i love the visuals of them. the illustrations are so beautiful—i love and connect with bright colors (a little hyposensitive in some ways, but in others—VERY sensitive—the colors are alive to me.)also read more serious works at a relatively young age, though tastes were quirky—i didn’t read the classics much. (it was vonnegut and steinbeck and ken kesey. i thought orwell was a god, and still do.)
biographies! i love them, whether in literary form, fictional film or documentary. i have a collection of heroes—i would list them, but there isn’t space.
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About Me
I'm Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg, and I publish this blog, Journeys with Autism. I'm a wife, mother, writer, singer, artist, photographer, community volunteer, and the chapter leader for the Vermont Chapter of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN).
At the age of 50, I awoke to my place on the autism spectrum and discovered a world of gifts, struggles, and life-changing possibilities. My latest book, The Uncharted Path: My Journey with Late-Diagnosed Autism, was published in July of 2010. My work has also appeared in Shift Journal of Alternatives: Neurodiversity and Social Change and in the Disability Rights and Neurodiversity section of the ASAN website.
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