Book Review: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Parents Writing Inspirational Stories about Raising Kids on the Spectrum

Chicken Soup books are popular and cover inspirational stories ranging from angels to chronic pain, from dogs and cats to Canada. If there's a topic you're interested in, they most likely have a book for you.  Unless you're on the spectrum, so you might want to email them and tell them that the next book needs to be inspirational stories from autistic individuals because autism isn't just about parenting autistic children. 

Not every book can deliver every angle, so criticizing this book for not including autistic voices would be unfair and inaccurate: Jean Winegardner is both on the spectrum and parenting an autistic child. And as we in the autism community are well aware, there are a lot of us parents with children on the spectrum who come to realize our own place on the spectrum.

This is a good book for parents to have when they're feeling down, confused, or weary. It allows for connecting with positive stories in a format where there's no opportunity for angry responses or trolls looking to bring people down. Blogging is great, and many of the writers in the book, including Kathleen, can be found in the feeds on this page, so it's like visiting friends in print form.

If you know a parent new to autism, then this is a good gift to give them. Let's hope that in a year or two, we'll also be able to give them a Chicken Soup book by autistic people, as well.