The Reason I Jump — Naoki Higashida

What a truly incredible book.

Noaki wrote this book when he was 13 years old.   A child diagnosed with autism at 5 who has struggled all his life with this incredibly difficult condition has finally learned a way to communicate through the written word.   This is a soul that has never been able to express itself before now able to tell the world what life is truly like living with autism.   The book takes the form of 58 common questions that are asked about autism and answers to each are given by Naoki.   These questions and answers are interspersed with Naoki’s prose and the book ends with a short story, also by Naoki.

It’s not a long book and it’s not a difficult read, it never goes off on tangents with pointless facts or science, it stays very much on target and is incredibly accessible.   And in so being, this makes this book a must read book for everyone, because we will all meet people with autism along our paths.   This book gives a lot of insight into just what is happening within that other human being, that there is a truly thoughtful and caring human being struggling within, and a little understanding of their abilities and disabilities would go a very long way to making their day a little better and not add any more to their struggles.

Just read it!!!

Naoki’s Page

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