George and Sam

First, two pieces of information about me:
· I hardly ever read non-fiction (give me stories above facts any day).
· I don’t like reading about depressing things, particularly not in reference to children.

And yet from the moment I saw an excerpt from “George and Sam” by Charlotte Moore - a collection of columns about her two autistic sons - I couldn’t wait to lay my hands on the book.

What could be (and probably is) a gloomy tale indeed, turns under Charlotte Moore’s touch into fascinating and humorous reading. I would have called it a light read because of the author’s style, except that the issues she discusses are serious: what it’s like to believe your child a genius only to be told he is autistic, living with someone who has a two-year old mentality in a teenager’s body, inadequacy of resources, the strength of parental love.

This is not a book about autism: it's a book about one very special and courageous family. The message of the book is simple: “Having an autistic child will always be a challenge; it does not need to be a tragedy.”