Diane Durand Illustrates A New Children's Book: My Brother, Autism, and Me

My brother has autism. My mother told me so.
In case you’re not sure what that means, I’ll tell you what I know…

So begins My Brother – Autism – And Me, written by Aisha Pope and illustrated by Diane Durand.

This book for children tells one little boy’s story about the good (and some not-so-good) times of life in his family with his brother who has autism.

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Chimps in Retirement

The Wauchula Woods Accord Toward a New Understanding of Animals
By Charles Siebert
Scribner, June 2009

From Michael Jackson's Bubbles to Tarzan's Cheetah, the simian stars of the Career Builder ads and laboratory test animals, these working apes are finally living in peaceful retirement.

In an interview on NPR'sFresh Air,journalist Charles Siebert describes his new book,The Wauchula Woods Accord: Toward A New Understanding of Animals.

He details his encounters with Roger a retired former circus chimp, who lived at the Center for Great Apes in Florida and preferred the company of humans to chimps.

As a science writer, Seibert covers the influence of person and animal interaction—both creatures are forever changed.

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Idea Sandbox: The 5 Stages of Acceptance

Paul Williams reviews the book What A Great Idea! 2.0 by Chic Thompson, which he describes as "chock full o’ bits of wisdom that help with creativity and creating new ideas."

From The Idea Sandbox:

Chic points out that killer phrases “are as inevitable in the innovation process as ideas themselves.”

He adds, “psychologists have siad that the human reaction to a new idea unfolds something like this, which we could call the Five Stages Of Idea Acceptance.” I’ve turned this list into a handy graphic suitable for framing.

The door-lock analogy is pretty accurate… You can have four of the five locks open, but the door is still closed until all five are unlatched.

Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People.

When I was a bachelor living in Chicago, my mom called one evening: "Your brother has a question for you."

She put 8-year-old Josh on the phone, who was curious if I still owned that 200-foot climbing rope. "Why? What's your plan?"

He was trying to solve a unique problem: How to connect a long rope from the 75-ft pine tree in our yard to the roof of the house in order to slide down it as a zip line.

(NOTE: Josh has been to the emergency room more than anyone else in our sprawling, adventurous family!)

Point being:

  1. "Problem-solving kids" are great,
  2. They need some skills and models to help'em,
  3. And society needs lots more of them!

 

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