Book Dealing With Special Needs

 

Title: Ian’s Walk

Author: Laurie Lears
Illustrator: Karen Ritz
Age group: 4-8 y/o
Awards: Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities 1999, IBBY 
Genre: Fiction

Summary

This book is about a boy named Ian who has autism. Ian has an older sister whose name is Julie, and she is going to the park with their older sister to feed the ducks and Ian wants to go as well. Although Julie does not want him to go, she asks her mom if he can go and their mom says yes. On their way to the park, Julie explains how Ian sees, hears, smells, and feels things differently than normal people. Everything Ian does, she tries to hide in a way or make sure people do not notice. Once at the park though, Julie takes her eyes off of Ian for a couple of seconds to tie her shoes and he’s gone. When Tara the older sister comes asking where is Ian, they go looking for him. Julie then starts trying to think like Ian, and finally gets an idea of where he might be. When she finds him she hugs him and tells him that on their way home they will walk home the way Ian likes. She lets him see, smell, hear, and feel things differently and the way he likes on their walk home without caring if anyone notices, and at the end she tell him that it was a good walk.

Evaluation

The book is really good and I would definitely use it in class. I would use it because it shows it from the perspective of the sister, and not Ian. The sister knows that Ian’s brain does not function like everyone’s else’s, yet she tries to hide what he is really like and is self conscious about what people might think. This book could be used to teach students that there are students and people that they will meet that will have autism. The book can help them understand that they are not like regular people. The book can also be used to show the relationship between the siblings. At first it seems that Julia is embarrassed by the things Ian does, but in the end she learns that it is just how Ian is. The book can also be used to show that you need to love people for who they are, and that they should not be treated any differently just because they have autism. The book is a wholesome book and I thought it was really cute, because I believe that kids with special needs or disabilities are special and little angels sent by God. They are just like everyone else except that they think differently and view the world in a different way. The illustrations are also very great in the book, they show you how Ian in a way sees the world around him, and how his sister got really worried when he disappeared from her sight. This book is good to use for a read aloud, because it can really show students that there are people out there that are special in a good way and there is nothing wrong with them.