Four years ago my son was diagnosed with Autism, PDDNOS to be exact. PDDNOS stands for Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. Wow, what a mouthful of fancy nonsense to describe a child as being "different". As you've probably read my story a few years ago when I decided to come to light with my son's diagnosis, of course my world came tumbling down. Out of three boys in our family, Simon is the second of our boys to be diagnosed with Autism. My amazing stepson, now 20, was diagnosed when he was a toddler. Who would have believed we would hit the Autism lottery not once, but twice! Luckily for my husband and I we were already well educated in the field of Autism with our oldest son's diagnosis. After all, second time is a charm right (insert sarcasm).
My son Simon is an extremely intelligent child, emotionally advanced for his age. I'm not just saying that because he is my son but because I know he is "different" and he has the most amazing heart of gold. I speak to my son like I'm speaking to someone my age, he is knowledgeable and wise beyond his years. In a lot of ways he acts like my father. He tells me to behave, sticks soap in my mouth when the occasional curse word slips out, and he does NOT like green hair, or punk hair, or any other type of funky colored hair. Believe me, I tried giving him green hair one day and I got an earful from him. I guess my early rebellious years of having crazy hair did not pass down his gene pool. One thing however is his love an admiration of Neil Gaiman books and I could not be anymore happier. Yay, he did pick up a little bit of mom's edgy side!!
About four months ago I picked up the Graveyard Book for him. I realized that books for his age level were not substantial enough for him. He is an advanced child so I figured, hey why not some Neil Gaiman stories. From then on he has been reading nothing but Neil Gaiman books for his school's reading log which he has to do every single day. Fortunately the Milk, Odd and the Frost Giants, The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains, Stardust, and Ocean at the End of the Lane have been his reading diet for the last 4 months. Yes, I sometimes cringe when I get emails from his teachers in fear that they will tell me the books are not suitable for his age level but thus far I have received no such notices. I did however have my parent teacher conferences last week. Because my son is categorized as Autistic in his school, the parent/teacher conferences are even more important. This last conference I was delighted to learn that the teachers have been impressed with Simon's writing skills and said that within the last four months they do not know what has happened to him because his writing has become abstract, he is thinking outside the box, and they even used his story as an example on how to compose a well written story for the controversial PARCC testing. Within the last four months the teachers said something has clicked inside his brain where he has become expressive through his writing and they are impressed and pleased to see him come out of his shell. Of course in my head the first thing that came to mind during the conference was "Yeah, thank you Neil". That night I drove back home in tears sitting next to my husband. I was so proud of my boy. I am glad to see him not afraid to express his feelings through writing as he has so many beautiful feelings in his heart that many times he is too shy to express. He is becoming quite the little author, a bookworm who spends hours reading novels and I have Mr. Gaiman to thank for his progress. Who would have known that passing on the magic I experienced as a teenager reading Sandman comics would pass on to my son years later reading Neil Gaiman novels. Thank you Neil, from the bottom of my heart.
- For more information on Neil Gaiman please visit his website at:
www.neilgaiman.com
If you are a parent looking for a guide to Neil Gaiman books for children check out , the official Neil Gaiman website for young readers. www.mousecircus.com
** Neil Gaiman is the author of more than 20, #1 New York Times best selling books. He is the recipient of many literary awards, writer of some of the best Doctor Who episodes, and for me, the dear and beloved creator of the Endless, the amazing Sandman comics.