Review: The Heart of Autism and Aspergers
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 22, 2012
Beth lives in a world of isolation - one where human touch is something painful rather than something to yearn for, where eye contact is uncomfortable and not a clue to emotions, where every encounter with others is an onslaught of information that she has difficulty processing.  With a mind twisted by aspergers's syndrome, Beth finds even the most benign of social situations lonely and frightening and can't help but feel uncomfortably different from everyone around her.  Love, caring, connection: they're all foreign concepts that have taken a lifetime to even slightly understand.  Imagine her immense terror, then, when she's thrown into the colorful, exuberant world of Witch Central.  Overwhelmed by the community but longing to learn more about its powerful magic, Beth finds herself torn between her needs as a woman and her needs as a witch.  Will she be able to navigate the delicate balance between the two and find a place where they finally merge within her soul?Witch Central is a safe haven, despite its boisterous nature, and its members find it hard to understand Beth's fear and resistance to their welcome.  The mama bear overseeing them all, Nell struggles the most with trying to accept this new witch and her completely foreign way of seeing the world and living in it.  Will she, and the rest of the Witch Central family, be able to live up to their motto of whole hearted acceptance and love?  Or will their differences be a barrier that causes them to hurt this new, strange young woman?  Not surprisingly, the key to understanding may rest in the palms of the youngest - and sometimes wisest - members of their clan.Characters that feel as very real as my own family, dialogue that brims with compassion and warmth and a plot that touches on controversial issues in a delicate and understanding way...Debora has done it again, creating a beautifully crafted book that pulls at heartstrings and makes you feel as if you've come home.  This book stands out above the rest for its sensitive portrayal of a young woman with Aspergers' and a little boy with autism.  Geary paints a realistic picture of these diseases and their effects on both the sufferer and those who try to help them.  It's a difficult subject to discuss and describe, but she does a wonderful job.  It's so hard for even non-autistic people to deal with feeling different and alone every once in a while; Debora shows us how those with the disorder battle that feeling every minute of the day.  The story provides an excellent introduction to the disease and insight into how difficult it can be to help those who must battle it.  It certainly corrected a lot of my own misunderstanding.  With a deft combination of laughter and tears, Geary gives us yet another book resounding with love and light (and lots of cookies, pasta and pink glitter too!)One of my favorite quotes was wisdom from the mouth of a babe:  "It's kind of hard to try to be like everyone else all the time.  It's okay to just be you sometimes."