‘It will stretch your vision of what it is to be human’ Andrew Solomon, The Times
What is it like to have autism? How can we know what a person – especially a child – with autism is thinking and feeling?
This groundbreaking book, written by Naoki Higashida when he was only thirteen, provides some answers. Severely autistic and non-verbal, Naoki learnt to communicate by using a ‘cardboard keyboard’ – and what he has to say gives a rare insight into an autistically-wired mind. He explains behaviour he’s aware can be baffling such as why he likes to jump and why some people with autism dislike being touched; he describes how he perceives and navigates the world, sharing his thoughts and feelings about time, life, beauty and nature; and he offers an unforgettable short story. Proving that people with autism do not lack imagination, humour or empathy, THE REASON I JUMP made a major impact on its publication in English. Widely praised, it was an immediate No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller as well as a New York Times bestseller and has since been published in over thirty languages.