‘Rick’ by Alex Gino

Middle-school is such an important time, when a person is trying to figure out who they are.

Add too, the incredible importance that peers play in a person’s life.

Rick by Alex Gino is especially valuable because, not only does it address the issues of gender and sexuality, but it also illustrates a protagonist having to cope with having a toxic “best friend.”

Not all relationships are healthy, but it isn’t always easy to identify.

This book takes place after Gino’s earlier novel, George, but I feel it can be read on its own.

‘Ghosted’ by Leslie Margolis

I wanted to read this book because it’s from the perspective of the mean girl -- a perspective that I think is important to understand if we’re to combat bullying.

Why do people engage in bullying behavior? What needs or desires does it speak to? What would it take to get them to stop?

In the case of Ghosted, the bully point-of-view character is a girl named Ellie.

First of all, what I like about this book is the idea that someone can change. Who you are now does not define you forever. That said, I didn’t find it believable when Ellie changed for the better.

‘Let’s Pretend We Never Met’ by Melissa Walker

I could intensely relate to the drama that is central to Let’ s Pretend We Never Met, seeing parallels from my own life with circumstances for the character of Agnes.

At Calistoga Elementery School and at Calistoga Junior/Senior High School, I was the weird girl, the person ostracized and shunned by the school population. There was no understanding for an autism spectrum when I was going to school, so my differences went unexplained.

Learning that the character of Agnes in this book is possibly autistic, made me interested in reading it. I’m interested in the ways that authors portray characters who are on the autism spectrum.

‘Year in Review’ activity sheet assumes all children have friends

It’s interesting that a Year-in-Review printable activity sheet for children, created by “Skip to My Lou,” assumes that all children completing it, have friends. If an ostracized child has difficulty expressing this reality, perhaps “My friends are ...,” left blank, can spark a dialogue.

Study: Peers judge children with autism based on facial expression

A study released by SAGE Publications and the National Autistic Society, U.K., has found that slower development by children with autism in facial expressivity marks them out among their peers.

At Disability Scoop, Michelle Diament highlights the rate at which typically-developing children form impressions of children with autism: in as few as 30 seconds according to study findings.

Fiction enhances readers’ empathy

Scientists have demonstrated the short-term effects of reading on people’s social abilities. As reported on NPR: people did better on a test of social perception, “Reading the Mind in the Eyes,” after reading from literary fiction than people who were assigned to read from non-fiction or popular fiction books.

Emotional Intelligence

I recently finished reading a book called Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. Written in 1995, what I thought intriguing about the book was that it described individual traits that today are recognized among tendencies attributed to Asperger’s syndrome.

Alexithymia, for instance, from the Greek: a- for “lack,” lexis for “word” and thymos for “emotion.” People with this tendency have difficulty expressing their emotions.

Psychologists also applied the term dyssemia, from the Greek: dys for “difficulty" and semes for “signal.” The condition is a learning disability in the realm of nonverbal language.

The book was written in 1995, immediately prior to Asperger’s syndrome becoming a recognized diagnosis in the DSM IV.

I’ve now begun reading Social Intelligence, which is by the same author but was published 11 years later. What a difference those 11 years make! Asperger’s syndrome is referenced by name in Goleman’s later book.

Transcribed from a personal journal