Rating: 
Summary: Describing an Indescribable Journey
Review: Anyone who is searching for insight into the world of an autistic child and their parents MUST read this book. It's one of the most beautifully written perspectives on one of life's very hard journeys I've ever read.The photography can actually stand alone in it's brilliance. Autistic children are difficult to photograph -- but Balsamo accomplished a beautiful and amazing glimpse into these children's eyes. The words bring clarity, understanding, tears, and endearment.
Rating:
Summary: I love this book!
Review: First of all, this book claims to be a view of autism from the inside out. Given that there are no quotes by autistic people in the book, and no photographs by autistic people, this strains credibility. It is very much an outside-in look at autism, and very parent-oriented. It is filled with excellent black-and-white photographs of autistic children and occasionally what looks like an adult (although it only says "children"), with quotations across from them in fancy layouts. Probably the two best things about this book are the photography and the fact that it deliberately bursts some stereotypes. The black-and-white photographs of autistic people are very well-done. The quotations and the photographs alike blast apart myths like the one that autistic people cannot express love. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad things about this book. I cannot easily forgive the fact that it claims to give an inside-out view when it is nothing of the sort -- although it seems to be trying to do the same thing as a photography project by autistic people that I've seen, that truly *is* an inside-out view and much less grim about how horrible autism is, even if it depicts people of similar levels of ability as the children in the book. The other thing is that grimness. The book uses a lot of negative emotional language to describe autism, words that make autism into a nightmarish melodrama. It compares autism to death. I may be autistic, I even may have 'regressed', but I'm the furthest thing from dead that I've seen in a long time. While I suspect that many parents may perceive autism that way, I don't like this in a book called "Souls: Beneath and Beyond Autism". If you're going to try to show the souls of people like me, it's better to do it right. You don't compare us to dead people, for starters, and you don't use a lot of language that evokes brokenness and despair. It is true that autistic people can be beautiful to a deep level beyond physical appearance, but this is not something as easily separated from autism as the title implies. It makes it sound like you have to look past autism to see these things, which seems to me to be a prejudice of neurotypicals -- that they think they have to look away from autism to see certain good things in a person, when autistic people can often look at each other, autism and all, and see the good without having to emphasize a distance from autism. We also don't normally have to make up for an overly dramatic negative view of ourselves by turning around at the end and portraying ourselves as teachers sent from God. These are things non-autistic people have to do in order to deal with *their* feelings about us. It says nothing about us itself. I do believe that this book could be very cathartic for parents, and I don't want to discount the work that went into it. But I don't especially enjoy the way it portrayed people like me, and the way in which it claimed to look "beneath autism". In the end, it was mainly, from this autistic person's point of view anyway, a study on the evolution of prejudice, from negative to positive, in the contributors. I am sure they love their children, but that does not mean I like this portrayal. I am glad I am old enough and communicative enough at this age to avoid my photograph being placed in this collection. I will save it, if anything, for some day in the future when there will be a similar book by autistic people, in which our own words about ourselves will be there.
Rating: 
Summary: Outside-in parental catharsis
Review: First of all, this book claims to be a view of autism from the inside out. Given that there are no quotes by autistic people in the book, and no photographs by autistic people, this strains credibility. It is very much an outside-in look at autism, and very parent-oriented. It is filled with excellent black-and-white photographs of autistic children and occasionally what looks like an adult (although it only says "children"), with quotations across from them in fancy layouts. Probably the two best things about this book are the photography and the fact that it deliberately bursts some stereotypes. The black-and-white photographs of autistic people are very well-done. The quotations and the photographs alike blast apart myths like the one that autistic people cannot express love. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bad things about this book. I cannot easily forgive the fact that it claims to give an inside-out view when it is nothing of the sort -- although it seems to be trying to do the same thing as a photography project by autistic people that I've seen, that truly *is* an inside-out view and much less grim about how horrible autism is, even if it depicts people of similar levels of ability as the children in the book. The other thing is that grimness. The book uses a lot of negative emotional language to describe autism, words that make autism into a nightmarish melodrama. It compares autism to death. I may be autistic, I even may have 'regressed', but I'm the furthest thing from dead that I've seen in a long time. While I suspect that many parents may perceive autism that way, I don't like this in a book called "Souls: Beneath and Beyond Autism". If you're going to try to show the souls of people like me, it's better to do it right. You don't compare us to dead people, for starters, and you don't use a lot of language that evokes brokenness and despair. It is true that autistic people can be beautiful to a deep level beyond physical appearance, but this is not something as easily separated from autism as the title implies. It makes it sound like you have to look past autism to see these things, which seems to me to be a prejudice of neurotypicals -- that they think they have to look away from autism to see certain good things in a person, when autistic people can often look at each other, autism and all, and see the good without having to emphasize a distance from autism. We also don't normally have to make up for an overly dramatic negative view of ourselves by turning around at the end and portraying ourselves as teachers sent from God. These are things non-autistic people have to do in order to deal with *their* feelings about us. It says nothing about us itself. I do believe that this book could be very cathartic for parents, and I don't want to discount the work that went into it. But I don't especially enjoy the way it portrayed people like me, and the way in which it claimed to look "beneath autism". In the end, it was mainly, from this autistic person's point of view anyway, a study on the evolution of prejudice, from negative to positive, in the contributors. I am sure they love their children, but that does not mean I like this portrayal. I am glad I am old enough and communicative enough at this age to avoid my photograph being placed in this collection. I will save it, if anything, for some day in the future when there will be a similar book by autistic people, in which our own words about ourselves will be there.
Rating:
Summary: Moving and Hopeful
Review: Having heard Sharon Rosenbloom speak professionally on the subject of autism, I expected Souls to be as unique and hopeful as her message. I was not disappointed. As a teacher who has worked with children and young people with autism, I was impressed by Soul's ability to capture both the complexity of autism and the simplicity of pure human emotion. I bought the book a few days ago, and enjoyed thumbing through it, admiring the beautiful, clear portraits while I glanced at the text headings and selected phrases. It wasn't until I sat and read the book in its entirety, cover-to-cover, that I was moved to tears. The combination of personal story, informative narrative and photos that capture the personality of their subjects make this an excellent book for those seeking to get beyond the hype of autism and into the real people who not only live with the diagnosis day to day, but thrive in spite of it.
Rating:
Summary: Moving and Hopeful
Review: Having heard Sharon Rosenbloom speak professionally on the subject of autism, I expected Souls to be as unique and hopeful as her message. I was not disappointed. As a teacher who has worked with children and young people with autism, I was impressed by Soul's ability to capture both the complexity of autism and the simplicity of pure human emotion. I bought the book a few days ago, and enjoyed thumbing through it, admiring the beautiful, clear portraits while I glanced at the text headings and selected phrases. It wasn't until I sat and read the book in its entirety, cover-to-cover, that I was moved to tears. The combination of personal story, informative narrative and photos that capture the personality of their subjects make this an excellent book for those seeking to get beyond the hype of autism and into the real people who not only live with the diagnosis day to day, but thrive in spite of it.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth about Autism in Pictures and Words
Review: The book captures the emotional essence of autistic children and their families. Not a how-to manual or a clinical perspective, but a revelation of both the true humanity of these very different kids, and the sorrow and blessings they bring to their parents and siblings. The "collective heart" speaks for me, and I'm sure many other parents, in concisely describing the journey our autistic children take us on. A wonderful book that will help parents of autistic kids to share the challenges and sucesses of our special families with people outside the "special needs" community.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth about Autism in Pictures and Words
Review: The book captures the emotional essence of autistic children and their families. Not a how-to manual or a clinical perspective, but a revelation of both the true humanity of these very different kids, and the sorrow and blessings they bring to their parents and siblings. The "collective heart" speaks for me, and I'm sure many other parents, in concisely describing the journey our autistic children take us on. A wonderful book that will help parents of autistic kids to share the challenges and sucesses of our special families with people outside the "special needs" community.
Rating:
Summary: Puts to words exactly how I feel.
Review: This beautifully written book puts into words the feelings that I have trouble expressing. I am the mother of a precious 7 year old boy who is autistic. My tears flowed freely as I sat and read each thought in this book. How could someone I don't even know capture the feelings that I have? I would recommend this book for parents of autistic children as well as their friends and relatives. It expresses our emotions, dreams and realities.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Portrayal of the feelings of a Parent
Review: This book had me weeping, smiling and remembering our first days, months and years with the beast known as Autism.
I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to understand Autism and it's effects on the children that are affected, and the parents that live with this 24/7.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: This book is fabulous! I would love to carry a copy around to distribute to all people who ask me, "What is autism?" The book explains autism by focusing on the wonderful person, rather than the "label." It answers questions based on how wonderful each individual person is and not how they are "different" from everyone else. My favorite part was when it talked about relationships and how each relationship is to be treasured. I teach four wonderful, dynamic, and fabulous individuals who enlighten my life daily. I feel fortunate to be able to call each of them my friend. The references to the "victory dances" was also another favorite part. We call them "Happy dances" at my school. Walk by the classroom and you are sure to see a teacher or student happy dancing all around! The most important thing that I took away from the book is a comforted feeling that there are more people out in the world like the dedicated teachers at my school. It is sometimes a hard struggle to educate the world about autism and it is comforting to know there are people all around who believe in how wonderful our kids are. To those of you on behalf of my four guys and all those lifes that have been touched by you, thank you for all that you do. I don't have to say, "keep up the good work", because we all know that there is nothing that we would not do to help our friends out.
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