The Reason I Jump

London: Sceptre/Hodder & Stoughton, 2013 9781444776751. Hardback. Fine/Fine. LIke New. DW is NOT price-clipped. No annotations or inscriptions. First edition. Second Printing. Number 2. 192 pages. 205 x 137mm."One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism." The account of life as a child with autism, now an award-winning documentary film. 'It will stretch your vision of what it is to be human' Andrew Solomon, The Times What is it like to have autism? How can we know what a person - especially a child - with autism is thinking and feeling? This groundbreaking book, written by Naoki Higashida when he was only thirteen, provides some answers. Severely autistic and non-verbal, Naoki learnt to communicate by using a 'cardboard keyboard' - and what he has to say gives a rare insight into an autistically-wired mind. He explains behaviour he's aware can be baffling such as why he likes to jump and why some people with autism dislike being touched; he describes how he perceives and navigates the world, sharing his thoughts and feelings about time, life, beauty and nature; and he offers an unforgettable short story. Proving that people with autism do not lack imagination, humour or empathy, this book made a major impact on its publication. "Composed by a writer still with one foot in childhood, and whose autism was at least as challenging and life-defining as our son's. The Reason I Jump was a revelatory godsend. Naoki abundantly proves that autistic people do possess imagination, humour and empathy, but also makes clear, with great poignancy, how badly they need our compassion, patience and understanding." Widely praised, it was an immediate No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller as well as a New York Times bestseller and has since been published in over thirty languages. In 2020, a documentary film based on the book received its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Jerry Rothwell, produced by Jeremy Dear, Stevie Lee and Al Morrow, and funded by Vulcan Productions and the British Film Institute, it won the festival's Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary, then further awards at the Vancouver, Denver and Valladolid International Film Festivals before its global release in 2021. The book includes eleven original illustrations inspired by Naoki's words, by the artistic duo Kai and Sunny. .