On the Shelf: The Reason I Jump

THE REASON I JUMP: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism | NAOKI HIGASHIDA | Random House | 2013

You’ve never read a book like The Reason I Jump. Written by Naoki Higashida, a very smart, very self-aware, and very charming thirteen-year-old boy with autism, it is a one-of-a-kind memoir that demonstrates how an autistic mind thinks, feels, perceives, and responds in ways few of us can imagine.

I know quite a few children with autism. I'm also really interested in the developing mind and how different environmental and biological factors impact our thought process. With this random interest in developmental psychology and my background in teaching, I knew that The Reason I Jump was a book I couldn't pass up.

After an introduction by author David Mitchell, the book is organized by seemingly simple questions: Why do you take ages to answer questions? Why can't you have a proper conversation? Is it true that you hate being touched? Naoki answers these questions using an alphabet grid that allows him to communicate at his own pace and in a way that doesn't emphasize a necessity of voice and language as we think of it. Naoki is extremely intelligent and even as he answers the very first question of the book (which explains the technology he is using to answer the questions), he forces readers to consider how they define 'communication' and how exclusionary our societal expectations of conversation really are.

Naoki answers the questions in the book with an almost unbearable honesty. He truly has no idea how differently he thinks from everyone else. But do the rest of us - those of us without autism, in this context - really think the same? Have you ever considered how you form an answer? How your brain works to recall a memory from years ago? Because Naoki finds a way to explain the images that he sees in his mind and he knows the systematic way he comes up with the answer to a question (no matter how simple or complex). It's amazing to read a 13-year-old boy explain these things when I know I could never put the same process into words.

Even if you don't know someone with autism, I think this book forces you to think about how you process information and react in social situations. It also highlights how differently everyone reacts to similar events. I guarantee you solve problems in your head in a completely different way from myself. If you are interested in fictional stories featuring characters with autism, I highly recommend reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and watching the film Adam starring Hugh Dancy. I think those creative works will really come to life after reading The Reason I Jump, once you begin to understand how someone with autism views and processes his or her surroundings.