Fall down 7 times get up 8 : a young man's voice from the silence of autism

Title:

Author:

Higashida, Naoki, 1992- author.

Personal Author:

Higashida, Naoki, 1992- author.

ISBN:

9780812997392

Edition:

English edition.

First edition.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 206 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Abstract:

"Naoki Higashida wrote The Reason I Jump as a 13-year-old boy. Now, he shares his thoughts and experiences as a 24-year old young man with severe autism. In short, powerful chapters, he explores education, identity, family, society and personal growth. He also allows readers to experience profound moments we take for granted, like the thought-steps necessary for him to register that it's raining outside. Introduced by award-winning author David Mitchell (co-translator with his wife, KA Yoshida), this book is part memoir, part critique of a world that sees disabilities ahead of disabled people. It is a self-portrait-in-progress of a young man who happens to have autism, and who wants to help us understand it better"-- Provided by publisher.

"The author of the bestselling phenomenon The Reason I Jump returns with a unique memoir about life as a young adult with severe autism. With an introduction by David Mitchell, who translated this book with his wife, KA Yoshida, this extraordinary new work explores education, identity, family, society, and personal growth, opening a window into the mind of its nonverbal author and providing remarkable insights into autism in general"-- Provided by publisher.

Personal Subject:

Higashida, Naoki, 1992--Health.

Subject Term:

Autism.

Autistic people -- Psychology.

Autistic people -- Japan -- Biography.

Genre:

Autobiographies.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Ginter Park	Book	616.85 H634 X	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

From the author of the bestselling The Reason I Jump, an extraordinary self-portrait of a young adult with autism

"Essential reading for parents and teachers of those with autism who remain nonverbal."--Temple Grandin

Naoki Higashida was only thirteen when he wrote The Reason I Jump, a revelatory account of autism from the inside by a nonverbal Japanese child, which became an international success. Now, in Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8, he shares his thoughts and experiences as a young man living each day with severe autism. In short, powerful chapters, Higashida explores school memories, family relationships, the exhilaration of travel, and the difficulties of speech. He also allows readers to experience profound moments we take for granted, like the thought-steps necessary for him to register that it's raining outside. Acutely aware of how strange his behavior can appear to others, he aims throughout to foster a better understanding of autism and to encourage society to see people with disabilities as people, not as problems.

With an introduction by the bestselling novelist David Mitchell, Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 also includes a dreamlike short story Higashida wrote especially for the U.S. edition. Both moving and of practical use, this book opens a window into the mind of an inspiring young man who meets every challenge with tenacity and good humor. However often he falls down, he always gets back up.

Praise for Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8

"[Naoki Higashida's] success as a writer now transcends his diagnosis. . . . His relative isolation--with words as his primary connection to the outside world--has allowed him to fully develop the powers of observation that are necessary for good writing, and he has developed rich, deep perspectives on ideas that many take for granted. . . . The diversity of Higashida's writing, in both subject and style, fits together like a jigsaw puzzle of life put in place with humor and thoughtfulness." -- The Japan Times

"Profound insights about what the struggle of living with autism is really like . . . Once again, the invitation to step inside Higashida's mind is irresistible." -- London Evening Standard

"Naoki Higashida's lyrical and heartfelt account of his condition is a gift to anyone involved with the same challenges. . . . Higashida shows a delicate regard for the difficulties his condition creates . . . and is adept at explaining his experiences in language that makes sense to neurotypicals." -- The Guardian

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

A young Japanese man's searching account of autism, following The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism (2013).Higashida, now 24, lives in silence. He cannot speak, but though his condition is of a kind categorized as both nonverbal and severe, he has learned to communicate by way of a keyboard that renders hiragana characters out of Roman letters. As co-translator Mitchell, a noted English novelist whose own son is autistic, writes, it is an arduous way of communicating. He adds, "Naoki's autism bombards him with distractions and prompts him to get up mid-sentence, pace the room and gaze out the window." That we have this illuminating book at all is a testament of his extraordinary effort, but there is little by way of self-pity to mark it. Higashida writes with confidence about his many interests, including nature and mathematics, and "the immutable beauties of autism," and he reckons himself lucky to be wired as he is. People with his condition, he writes, do not seek pity from outsiders, either, but instead the chance to live outside the confines of shunted-off institutions and as independently as possible. "Yes," he writes, "the neurotypical majority might be more productive than us, but we, too, want to embrace life and be of use to others as best we can." What people with special needs want and require more than anything else is the same search for meaning that any other person of free will conducts. In a mix of short essaysincluding the opener, a lovely thank-you note to a mother to whom he has never spokenHigashida explores aspects of his atypicality, most of it pointing to the fact that he is indeed atypical, indeed unlike most other people, in the depth of his emotional and intellectual strength. Autism is a mysterious neurological condition. While the science is incomplete, Higashida gives us a thoughtful view of the art of living well in its shadow. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.