Book Review: The Asperkid’s (Secret) Book of Social Rules (10th anniversary edition)

Posted July 2, 2022 by geograph in autistic, nonfiction, review, YA / 0 Comments

Book Review: The Asperkid’s (Secret) Book of Social Rules (10th anniversary edition)The Asperkid's Secret Book of Social Rules by Jennifer Cook O'Toole
Published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers on August 25, 2022
Genres: Education / Special Education / General, Psychology / Psychopathology / Autism Spectrum Disorders
Pages: 279
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: Netgalley

Being a teen or tween isn't easy for anyone but it can be especially tough for Asperkids. Jennifer O'Toole knows; she was one! This book is a top secret guide to all of the hidden social rules in life that often seem strange and confusing to young people with Asperger syndrome.

The Asperkid's (Secret) Book of Social Rules offers witty and wise insights into baffling social codes such as making and keeping friends, blending in versus standing out from the crowd, and common conversation pitfalls. Chock full of illustrations, logical explanations, and comic strip practice sessions, this is the handbook that every adult Aspie wishes they'd had growing up.

Ideal for all 10-17 year olds with Asperger syndrome, this book provides inside information on over thirty social rules in bite-sized chunks that older children will enjoy, understand, and most importantly use daily to navigate the mysterious world around them.

Look, I was prepared to absolutely hate this book and rip it apart because ‘asperger’s’ is Out of Vogue, but they actually address it and talk about it (although not Directly, ie, we don’t use Asperger’s anymore because Mr. Asperger was a Nazi, just that it is a Problematic Thing). I really think that if it’s being re-released, they could go with a new title. The author is autistic, which follows “nothing for us without us” (vs Own Voices), which I really really appreciated. This is a great book to pull social advice from; while this book is aimed towards teenagers, I jotted down some useful rules. It’s really presented in a way where it’s like, here is a rule, and now here is a personal story where you can see what I did in this situation and apply it to your own life, or relate to it, etc. Written-down rules for social situations are much easier for me personally to follow, so I thought this was extremely helpful. Four stars; great book, bad title.

Bookshop link here.

Tags: , ,


Leave a Reply

(Enter your URL then click here to include a link to one of your blog posts.)