Inside Out by Ann M. MartinThere are three kids in Jonno's family: Jonno(11), Lizzie(9), and James(4). But when Jonno's mother says "you kids", she's only referring to Jonno and Lizzie. That's because James is autistic. He'd been normal until he was about two, and after that he doesn't talk, has no interest in people, only eats certain foods, hates being touched, etc. Jonno hates having James mess up his life, deplete the family savings(treatment and diagnosis are expensive), and just be different. Then two things happen: James is accepted into a special school which calls upon the family to assist them in educating James, and a really weird kid joins Jonno's class. The kid, Edward, is really fat, has never been in a regular class before, and has no social skills. Seeing his chance to be an in-kid, Jonno nicknames the new boy Edweird. James' school's educational technique is a form of ABA, where he is rewarded for good behaviors and punished for the "bad". ABA is portrayed inaccurately here in that the rewards are not all things James like; ABA does not reward good behaviors with what it
hopes a kid will learn to like. Autism here is portrayed in a negative but accurate manner. That Jonno never makes the connection between Edweird and James frustrated me. Through out the book, I was waiting for the announcement that Edweird had Aspergers, and could be linked to James. Because it was written in 1984, this book is out of date. The title refers to some people's inability to hide their emotions; Jonno figures that they're inside out.
Happy reading.
