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Freaks, Geeks & Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence |  | Author: Luke Jackson
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Pub
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy New: $10.56
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Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  65 reviews
Sales Rank: 9519
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 224
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 1843100983
Dewey Decimal Number: 618.9289820092
EAN: 9781843100980
ASIN: 1843100983
Publication Date: August 15, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| • | ISBN13: 9781843100980 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
Have you ever been called a freak or a geek? Have you ever felt like one? Luke Jackson is 13 years old and has Asperger Syndrome. Over the years Luke has learned to laugh at such names but there are other aspects of life which are more difficult. Adolescence and the teenage years are a minefield of emotions, transitions and decisions and when a child has Asperger Syndrome, the result is often explosive.
Luke has three sisters and one brother in various stages of their adolescent and teenage years but he is acutely aware of just how different he is and how little information is available for adolescents like himself.
Drawing from his own experiences and gaining information from his teenage brother and sisters, he wrote this enlightening, honest and witty book in an attempt to address difficult topics such as bullying, friendships, when and how to tell others about AS, school problems, dating, relationships and morality.
Luke writes briefly about his younger autistic and AD/HD brothers, providing amusing insights into the antics of his younger years and advice for parents, carers and teachers of younger AS children. However, his main reason for writing was because "so many books are written about us, but none are written directly to adolescents with Asperger Syndrome. I thought I would write one in the hope that we could all learn together."
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 65
 My # one suggestion for parents and teachers of AS kids December 18, 2009
Michelle F. Moore (Vancouver, Wa USA)
I love this book!! As a of parent 4, the oldest being an 11 yo boy with AS it was the most helpfull (and I'v read alot!!). Cause its writen by a 13 yo boy with AS its also a fun cute at times funny read. It helped so much with the nagging questions you have as a parent..like weather or not to tell them of there dx?? or why do they do that all the time and should I stop them?? I first read this when my son was first dx with AS at 7...I'm rereading it now that he is in Adolescence, Then I will have him read it. I think he will very much enjoy it as he can so relate with Luke. I have asked his Middle school teachers to read it aswell. Never really understood what whent on in my boys head untill reading this book. Must read for all adolescence with AS and thier parents and support team. Its nice to know there is a light at this tunnel called Aspergers and its kinda cool. Aftet reading this book my new song for life is "I can see clearly now" by bob marley.
 Freaks, Geeks & Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence September 22, 2009
Theresa Evenbly (Houston, TX USA)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Oh, I wish I had paid attention to the other reviews. So sorry I wasted my money on this. It was recommended by my son's school so I naively thought it might be beneficial to my own teenager. IT'S NOT. It's audience is truly British teens as there is a lot that needs to be translated into American English (at least culturally). This kid has no clue the conflicts faced by an American teen so his advice misses the mark. For a teenager who is on the autism spectrum, there are some glaring omissions in his story/advice that are difficult for my own son to get past (like he mentions his family repeatedly but at no time does he mention his dad). The book desperately needs editing and revamping in order to market to an American audience. Personally don't purchase it (I'm trying to figure out if I can get a refund so I can mail it back!)
A great, if not particularly well-written, book September 12, 2009
P. Motes (Jefferson, GA United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book was recommended to me by a support group for Aspie teens, and I was fascinated by Luke Jackson's frank portrayal of his life as an Aspie. At times, his writing lacks polish, but the fresh perspective on a puzzling disorder more than makes up for any flaws in the writing. This is a recommended read for parents of children "on the Autism Spectrum" and for anyone who wants to know more about Asperger's Syndrome. Jackson's small book is a huge achievement.
A Fancinating First-Person View June 17, 2009
Leslie Todd (Texas, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
of life with AS. This is a fantastic book by a thirteen year old with Asperger Syndrome. As soon as I finish reading it I plan to read it to my son.
The book is written as a self-help book for teens who have AS or Autism, but also has explanations for teachers, parents and others. I especially like the parts where he details how his thinking processes work. It explains so much.
The author also goes into details about variations on the syndrome that he has not personally experienced, so it does cover more than just his experience. There is also an extensive resource list in the back.
This is a great book for teens and tweens who are on the autism spectrum and for their family members and teachers. The author is from Britain, so there are a few words and cultural differences that US readers will note, but these are minor.
 Up-to-date, cheeky, interesting & readable P.S. Educational too! June 5, 2009
Elizabeth A Triano (In Transition, NY (watch this space))
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This was a fun, sassy read. I think it could be read as an intro to AS (Asperger's Syndrome) but it would be better read, as I did, with some knowledge of the territory. Not a lot necessarily; just enough to have your bearings going in. The writer, Luke Jackson, was 13 at the time of writing (as he reminds us regularly) and is in many ways a typical precocious 13-year-old boy. I have one, and I know several, and they can really be a lot like this narrative -- cocky, knowledgeable, occasionally striving for humility but often too caught up in their worldview to consider it. Often Luke's narrative voice was more endearing than bothersome in its cockiness, but from time to time it did seem as if he felt that (1) having Asperger's made people superior in some way, and (2) the world, from teachers to the social order in general, should change in order to fit him better. On the one hand, both of those sentiments are universally human - on the other, sometimes the way they were presented could get a little offensive.
But then, one must remind oneself, the writer is only a boy. A boy with an editor and other powers behind him, but nonetheless a young writer who will mature. I hope he can mature into a certain amount of understanding of others - that other individuals are as unique as he is, and we all need to compromise sometimes. It isn't just about bending every system to accommodate the least common denominator. As I have seen this powerful egotism in works by other aspies, I can only keep reading and wait to see how it all works out culturally.
I almost forgot... this book really gets inside the Asperger's experience. From sensory issues to diet, routines, obsessions, public perceptions, social challenges, it is all there in the first-person-subjective. Thus the text is not exhaustive and encyclopedic, but rather specific and scattered with examples and caveats. He highly recommends the glutein-free/casein-free diet, which has been useful to many people but is quite a challenge to implement. It does remind one of the issues with sugar and food colorings in past decades, which were also very much things that affected some people more than others (and can you say "excitotoxins"? -- there's one for today).
Luke's family has other members with challenges as well, which he mentions from time to time as they become relevant, which they often are. (For myself, I wondered how you could have I think it was six kids with varying disabilities, apparently blood relatives and not adopted, with no mention at all of a father anywhere in the text. Maybe it was an oversight?)
Luke's book is brave as well as funny. He often takes a deep breath and plunges into detailed stories of trauma or confusion, because they are such helpful illustrations. He has been through some painful situations, and while he relates some of them with embarrassment or apologies, the range of emotions he allows is still not normal. He is, as I have said, amazingly articulate, and his book is eminently readable - but it's almost as if he is a brilliant alien conversing fluently in a learned language - and some would argue that that could be a good description of life on the [autism] spectrum.
Luke also has obviously worked very hard at his understanding of the kind of language that is so alien to AS folks... figures of speech especially. On the other hand, he unconsciously uses a lot of British slang, which is often opaque to Americans. That was one of my main quibbles with this book, actually, aside from the Asperger's-self-centeredness - the pervasive Brit slang. I have been to the UK several times, and once studied there for a year, but there were still a lot of words that he used that I had no idea what they meant. And they weren't in the glossary, either (he included a glossary of figures of speech, for other Aspies, or maybe to show off his learning).
There is a lot of good in this book, from its wealth of specifics and citations of other books and websites (in the "Further Reading" appendix), to its simple humanity. It's not perfect, but it's very good.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 65
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