Different Like Me: My Book of Autism Heroes

Written by Jennifer Elder with illustrations by  Marc Thomas. Jennifer Elder was born and raised in San Francisco, and continued through college there as well studying at the San Francisco Art Institute.  In addition to writing two children's books on Autism, she is also an assistant editor at a large publishing company.   She writes on topics like autism because she has a child with Asperger's Syndrome.

Genre: Nonfiction
Theme: Historical Figures with Special Needs
Ages: 8 - 12

Summary: This story introduces children to famous historical figures, their accomplishments and their characteristics.  What is different about this story is that it is told by a young boy with Asperger's Syndrome.  He tells the readers about heroes with autism. It includes famous figures from Albert Einstein, Dian Gossey and Wassily Kandinsky to Lewis Carroll, Benjamin Banneker and Julia Bowman Robinson, and many other.  What links all of these important figures together is that they all struggled to fit in.  The book also has a list of other stories about people with special needs for further reading.

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