"Andy and His Yellow Frisbee" Review

Thompson, Mary. Andy and His Yellow Frisbee. Bethesda: Woodbine
House, 1996.

Andy and His Yellow Frisbee is about a boy with autism who is constantly spinning his yellow frisbee at recess. A new girl in school, Sarah, sees him and decides that she is going to bring her own pink frisbee to play with at recess, along with trying to talk to Andy. When Sarah tries talking to Andy, his sister, Rosie, sees them and worries that Andy will not know how to respond or handle the situation. Andy ends up moving over a little to continue spinning his frisbee. When Sarah gets up to walk away, saying "How about another time," she sees Rosie and they end up playing catch together. Rosie ends up wondering if Andy, maybe one day, would show Sarah how to spin the frisbee like he does because of how close Andy let Sarah get.

From my experience with kids with autism, I think that Thompson does a good job explaining some their characteristics and actions. She mentions that Andy has autism, and then goes into explaining how children with autism might act. Having young children know how other kids with autism act is important so that they do not do something that would bother anyone, and the author explains these characteristics. It shows how Andy likes to do things on his own, and how he likes to focus almost all of his attention on one thing, in this case, a spinning object. The book portrays Andy as both a normal kid and one who is different, which is how children with autism should be treated. While they have their differences, they also deserve to be treated nicely, which is portrayed by Sarah's kindness to Andy. This story also shows his sister Rosie's care for her brother. I have a sister with special needs, and I can relate to how Rosie reacted when she realized that her brother may be in an incomfortable situation. The very end of the book has a section called "What is Autism?" that can be helpful in explaining the information to children. It also explains that Mary Thompson has four kids, with one of the four having disabilities.