Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World [Hardcover]

I was excited to read and review this book, along with my ten-year-old son. Haydn has Asperger's, and he watched a small part of the HBO movie about Temple's life. He related to Temple in that movie, so I thought this book would be good for him.

I was right.

Temple's love and empathy for/with animals is something my son can understand. When we adopted two kittens, Hocus & Pocus, we called the the "Therapy Cats." My son would cuddle them and show affection that he was unable to express with we human family members. We spent a lot of time teaching him how to treat animals. It pleased him to read about Temple lying down among the cattle and also about her efforts to make things better for those same creatures. From my side, it was neat to read about Temple's thoughts on the animals and how they helped her as a child. I am daily struggling to help Haydn be who he is and also learn to live in this society. I hope, hearing some of my same advice from Temple helped it make sense to him.

My son was teased relentlessly in school and still gets hurt by neighbor kids. He liked hearing how Temple survived the bullying and grew up to follow her dreams in her own way, not the way society would set for her. My son spends his free time either building Lego creations (a working pistol, a soda machine, etc.) or folding intricate origami animals and paper planes that really fly. By showing him Temple's life as an engineer and designer, I pray I gave him some hope for his own future and confidence that his skills are worthwhile.

I thank Sy Montgomery for writing this kid-size biography of Temple Grandin. Our whole family has enjoyed the fruits of her labor.

Autism is hard to understand for people who aren't on the autistic spectrum. People can learn what autism is like to a certain extent, and how autistic people act. It's also not difficult to understand what to expect from people with autism and how to compensate for it. This book explains all of that, but it goes far beyond those aspects.

In addition to understanding what autism is and how it affects people, this book explains how people with autism think, and does so better than other books on the subject. Children may be told what to expect from those with autism and how they may act, but this book can help children understand in a way that will allow them to understand the "how and why" in addition to the "what."

But this in not a book about autism. It's a book about Temple Grandin and her work. Although it tells the story from the perspective of how she thinks, it focuses on her accomplishments and why she was able to do things that "normal people" can't. She does not consider herself "normal" and doesn't think that's a bad thing at all.

The book also tells the story of an industry. It tells how virtually the entire cattle industry didn't and couldn't understand things from a cow's perspective. It shows how humane treatment not only benefits the cows but also benefits the owners and workers. It shows how cruelty is not necessary to increase profits, and how the opposite is true.

This is also the story of change. The industry changed its practices to a very large extent due to the advice, innovations and inventions of Temple Grandin. You will not only understand how she came to understand what needed to be done, but also why "normal" people were incapable of figuring out the problem or coming anywhere close to understanding how their actions affected the animals. Thanks to Temple Grandin, the beef industry is far more humane.

This biography is not by Temple Grandin, but about her. It's for an audience who may not be ready for her books such as Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior. Its style is simple enough for children in the later years of elementary school through junior high school, but can be educational even for adults.

In many senses the style is far too simple for adults to feel that the book was written with them in mind. Parts of it are compelling enough that children will enjoy reading it rather than seeing it as a mere learning tool. But it will also serve well for book report material. The content is important enough that I would encourage schools to include this as required reading at some point in the curriculum though. Children need to understand not only that others are different, but why they are different, how they think and why they think the way they do. It can take away the feeling that those with autism are simply weird and replace it with the notion that their behavior makes perfect sense. But most of all it will show children just how much a person can accomplish in life even if others are willing to write them off as too different to fit in.

Speaking as an adult who operates with a both a genius-level IQ *and* multiple disabilities, Temple Grandin is an amazing person. This childrens' biography of Temple is well-crafted and inspiring. Keeping in mind that it's written for ages 9 and up, it could easily be read aloud to a child as young as seven who has a sibling with Asperger's or who has Asperger's or is Autistic him/herself. (Parents be aware: you will need to read ahead and choose how to approach Temple's animal advocacy and humane feed lot designs.) *Temple Grandin: How The Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism And Changed The World* promotes *difference* as a Good Thing. How wonderful and rare.

The teacher in me loved every page of this book. It's beautifully designed with not-too-long chapters and lots of photographs. (This is very important for children who struggle with learning differences.) Autism is explained in a way that most children can easily understand; and learning differences are just *differences.* The difficult parts of Temple's growing up are dealt with directly but in a kind way. The chapter "Trial by Teasing" deals with bullying -- which is a huge problem for children who live with "Difference" of any kind. Temple's life story is told in a way that with which both children and adults can relate. (We're *all* different in some way.) The subchapter about the "abnormality of genius" asks "Should everyone live a typical life?" And Temple's own words answer in her own way: "Everybody's not the same... And thank goodness for that!" What a great message!

*Temple Grandin: How The Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism And Changed The World* is a Good Book plain and simple. It won't disappoint you and just might inspire you to do something amazing.