United in Autism

November 1, 2018

When Hornok's daughter, Lizzie, was diagonosed with autism at the age of two, the author jumped into researching and implementing a 30-hours-a-week home-therapy program. Along the way, she started the blog LizzieHornok.Blogspot.com to share not only the therapies that helped her and others but also inspiring stories of activism, all included in this volume. Thirty accounts by parents from various backgrounds and parts of the world describe their particular experience. Autism can be a lonely journey, writes the author, who helps bridge the gap for isolated parents with this offering, which documents her process of implementing an in-home speech, occupational therapy program, applied behavioral analysis, and dietary changes. VERDICT Readers seeking a comprehensive volume on autism should look elsewhere. Those in search of stories of solidarity will find that and more here.Julia M. Reffner, Richmond, VA

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2018
This debut collection of personal essays examines the experience of parenting an autistic child.Hornok has an autistic daughter and is on the board of the National Autism Association of North Texas. "Autism can be a lonely journey," she writes, but knowing that other families have been through the same thing can be comforting. To that end, she interviewed 30 parents of children with autism, based everywhere from Missouri to Singapore. On the basis of those interviews, she has rendered their accounts as intimate, first-person narratives. (One of the essays, about Kirk Smith's son JJ, includes excerpts from Smith's 2013 memoir, Rice Krispies with Ketchup.) Each piece is concise, thought-provoking, and illustrated with at least one black-and-white family photograph. The children range from highly functional to virtually nonverbal, though there are some similarities in their progress. A recurring pattern in the parents' recollections is that their children seemed to develop normally until the age of about 1 1/2, at which point there was a regression in motion and language, and repetitive behaviors began. A common theme in this vibrant collection--which features a foreword by Temple Grandin--is meticulous planning to avoid meltdowns. But these parents are honest about their nightmare moments. A Swedish mother and her son were asked to leave a plane when he wouldn't stop screaming; an Idaho woman had to call the police when her son started hitting her. There were also drowning scares and a threat of shock therapy. The disparity in treatment options--not just between countries, but between U.S. states--is eye-opening. Most of the parents featured have taken matters into their own hands, starting charitable organizations or support groups to plug the gaps in government services. For instance, an Ethiopian mother built a school for kids with autism so parents wouldn't leave them tied to beds, and a Boston mother lobbied states to require insurance companies to cover autism treatment. A Russian father concludes, "Kids with autism are given to us for a reason: they are our greatest teachers." This book offers both lessons and hope.A well-written and reassuring set of true stories about autism.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 15, 2018

When Michael Clemons, a teen with autism, was shot and killed by police (he was nonverbal and didn't respond to commands given by the officer), Hornok, herself a mother of a child on the spectrum, worked to pass legislation requiring police officers to receive training on developmental disabilities. Along the way, she started the blog LizzieHornok.Blogspot.com to share not only the therapies that helped her and others but also inspiring stories of activism, all included in this volume. Thirty accounts by parents from various backgrounds and parts of the world describe their particular experience. Autism can be a lonely journey, writes the author, who helps bridge the gap for isolated parents with this offering, which documents her process of implementing an in-home speech, occupational therapy program, applied behavioral analysis, and dietary changes. VERDICT Readers seeking a comprehensive volume on autism should look elsewhere. Those in search of stories of solidarity will find that and more here.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.