Pat Thomas

Suddenly, ableism! Thousands of them!
Y'all get bullet points because I'm too grumpy at this thing for actual paragraphs.

- Uses person first language despite the majority of the autistic community preferring identity first language
- Treats the autistic person as an interesting side show exhibit rather than the person most qualified to tell others about what autism is like ie does not centre the autistic person in their own story
- Focuses almost exclusively on the strangeness/"negatives" and show more stereotypical outward behaviour that people associate with autism ie reinforces othering
- One of the most bothering things for me is that the autistic children are depicted apart from everyone on almost every page
- Let's not even talk about that one page with what looks like hand-over-handing while doing a JIGSAW PUZZLE (whoops, guess I just did)
- This book gets one singular point for showing both male and female autistic children in the illustrations.

I would not recommend this book to anyone, but especially not to read to anyone who is actually autistic. There's much better children's books on the topic out there. [b:I am an Aspie Girl: A book for young girls with autism spectrum conditions|26591202|I am an Aspie Girl A book for young girls with autism spectrum conditions|Danuta Bulhak-Paterson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1444697689s/26591202.jpg|46613341] for instance. show less

This is a shorter book than many of Pat's other titles this one concentrates on cosmetics and toiletries. It does re-iterate some of the points made in earlier books but it does feature an updated list of more "green" cosmetic companies who have lower or no-harmful chemicals in their formulations. I'm not going to say "no chemicals" as I was a science student once and do understand that everything is chemicals!

If you want to go greener this is a useful tool to investigate those things that show more might be useful. If you've read other books by Pat Thomas this might feel a little repeditive. show less

I really liked this book. It begins with a picture of children playing outside/sports and simply asks which children find it hard to join in. The following page begins with "you probably guessed the girl in the wheelchair" and explains that a lot of people would. However, it is actually a "normal" looking boy because he can't run as fast as his friends. It continues with several scenarios that call attention to the fact we are all different and we all have strengths and weaknesses. It also show more goes into name calling and emotional feelings, like being left out, that every child can relate to. This book can be read straight through or become very interactive. The pictures were a little dated, at least in the version I read, but overall I love this book and think every preK and Kindergarten class would benefit from. show less

In honor of the title, I painfully admit that this book is truly NOT special. While I appreciate the inclusion of people with disabilities in a children's book, the text reads like a mother gently explaining away a curious child's endless questioning about a person with disabilities and the illustrations are stylistically so dated and boring. I appreciate the resounding message of respecting the emotions of people with disabilities, but feel as if it gets very condescending at times. While show more I'm very well aware that people with disabilities are traditionally underrepresented in children's literature, I imagine they would like to see themselves featured in a real narrative, instead of just a book aimed at fostering tolerance and accepting of their differences. show less