Naoki Higashida & David Mitchell: The Reason I Jump: One boy's voice from silence of autism

The Reason I Jump was a random risk of mine that I discovered while looking for factual psychology based books. This book is written by a 13 year old boy, Naoki Higashida, who is on the autistic spectrum and has been translated from Japanese to English by David Mitchell so that every parent of an autistic child could benefit from Naoki's insightful words. 

David explains how his is a parent of an autistic child who cannot communicate well and who David had difficulties understanding. In David's own review of Naoki's words, he claims that his writings have opened up a whole new world of possibilities for himself and his family. 

The book itself is made up of David's introduction, followed by 58 questions posed by average individuals about autism and answered by Naoki on his experiences and perceptions of autism. When I began reading the book, I assumed (much like everyone else according to this book) that the senses of those who are autistic must be different since they often suffer with an influx of sensory information. However, Naoki does his utmost to explain how it ACTUALLY feels to be autistic. You can relate to his worldly experiences. When I finished the book, I felt like I could imagine how autistic individual feel. I feel like all this light energy and noise has a physical present and pressure on my skin and, from this book, I feel like this is how those who are autistic must feel (only by my readings of this book). Of course, I cannot know for sure and never well as a typically average adult, but I feel awakened to these factors.

Naoki explains how he sees the word differently and how much of a benefit that can be. And even more beautifully, he details how nature can be the only friend an autistic child has and why. I was drawn to read about autism as my son has an autistic friend who is 11 years old and I see his struggles every day. I feel how he suffers some days and now much love he has to give on others and, today, this book really hit home. Even more importantly, it makes me want to impower him even more to do what he wants to make him feel fulfilled and happy as Naoki has. Naoki is an author, a blogger and a poet; he has his own published book, THIS BOOK, at age 13! Amazing considering his communication difficulties. 

Anyway, the book itself is not academic and is a personal account of autism. The contents are most useful for any person interested in autism to truly understand the pros and cons of the life of an individual who is on the autism spectrum. I suppose it could be used as a case study secondary reference for any student or academic, but is truly important for any parent who is struggling to understand their child and is, possibly, heartbroken when they feel that they do not know how best to help their child. 

The repetitive message of this book is, from the words of Naoki: 'Please, whatever you do, don't give up on us. We need your help' and what better way to be able to offer this help, than with this valuable insight.