Nora Raleigh Baskin

I think this is a pretty good portrayal of how a high-functioning autistic boy would think and act. I have Asperger's Syndrome, so they say, and although I do better than Jason I can recognize a lot of my problems in him. The conflict with the story convention is well done and I thought the ending was perfect -- hopeful, and realistic. Very good story overall, and it just might make neurotypical readers a little more sympathetic and understanding towards people with autism.

Narrated by twelve-year-old Jason Blake, an autistic boy "living in a neurotypical world," this humorous and heart-breaking book offers young readers a brief glimpse of life through the eyes of someone who doesn't always know how to interpret the words and actions of the people around him, or how to respond to them, but who - in his own way - understands them all too well. When so many things in his life are such a struggle - when everything from recognizing who people are (certain facial show more types tend to look all alike, and context becomes everything) to remembering to breathe during stressful situations, can be so difficult - Jason's writing, his stories, which he posts to the Storyboard website, are his retreat from a hurtful world. When he makes a friend - a friend who is a girl! - on the site, he thinks that Phoenixbird (real name: Rebecca) may be his first girlfriend. But then he discovers that his parents are planning to take him to a Storyboard convention, where Rebecca will also be in attendance - where Rebecca will see who he really is - and his carefully separated worlds collide...

I know very little of Autism myself, and therefore feel at something of a loss, when it comes to analyzing the authenticity of Baskin's depiction of an autistic boy's view of the world. Friends who are better informed seem to find it convincing, and I myself felt that I was reading something from a perspective I had never encountered before. Jason's musings about the people around him - how they say one thing, but really mean another; how they associate eye-contact with listening, when the two having nothing to do with one another; how they edge away from him, while pretending not to - are so well observed, and so poignant. The conclusion of the plot-line involving Rebecca is not all happiness and light, which I really respected, but the book does not end on a gloomy note either: I appreciated the fact that Jason decides to continue writing, inspired by Hamilton. I don't know that I would ever have picked up Anything But Typical on my own, so I'm grateful that it was chosen for the Children's Fiction Book-Club to which I belong, as I ended up really enjoying it. It's an engaging story, one that emphasizes both the unique experience of being autistic, and the common life experiences and emotions that autistic children share with everyone else. Highly recommended! show less

Jason is twelve and he is autistic. He writes this story as well as he can so that non-autistic people, neurotypicals, can understand it. It's interesting to see what it is like for Jason to be autistic, but it's just as interesting to read all the true statements he makes about neurotypicals that a lot of people never really talk about. Like how most neurotypicals seem to have a lot of trouble listening and saying what they mean - and why do neurotypicals say so much without meaning show more anything? Jason is smart and funny, and he's brave enough to mention a lot of the bull**** that people don't usually talk about. show less

Mock Newbery 2010

I really loved what Baskin did with the first-person narration in this book. The main character and narrator, an autistic boy named Jason, tells us his head is flying off of his body and his mother is saying, "Stop doing that to your hair," but we don't know that he's doing anything to his hair, which subtly conveys what Jason is and isn't aware of when he's having a panic attack. This book is full of stuff like that. One of my favorite things about reading is the chance to show more live in someone else's head, and this book definitely has that going on. Also, I am a sucker for a well-meaning, but unreliable narrator.

Another thing I liked about this book was that Jason is a writer. Baskin does this very meta thing where Jason talks about some of the basic rules of writing (e.g. how to use irony) and then something happens in his story where that rule is either conveyed or broken. That kind of thing could come off as overly didactic, but it doesn't, because it seems intentional on Jason's part; it's one of the tricks he uses to tell his story (not something the author is sticking in to teach us something).

There are heartbreaking moments in this book, but it's not a total downer. And at just under 200 pages, it's a quick, fascinating read. If I taught 6th or 7th grade language arts, this it something I'd put in my curriculum. show less