Reason I Jump (Higashida) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
The Reason I Jump may raise questions, as many books have, about the nature of autism. But it raises questions about translation as well. [David Mitchell's] translation, at its best, is a dance between an objective search for equivalent language and an intuitive grasp of the author’s intent, which may have nothing to do with the translator’s point of view. The parents of an autistic child may not be the best translators for a book by an autistic child.
Sallie Tisdale - New York Times


Please don’t assume that The Reason I Jump is just another book for the crowded autism shelf.... This is an intimate book, one that brings readers right into an autistic mind—what it’s like without boundaries of time, why cues and prompts are necessary, and why it’s so impossible to hold someone else’s hand. Of course, there’s a wide range of behavior here; that’s why "on the spectrum" has become such a popular phrase. But by listening to this voice, we can understand its echoes.
Chicago Tribune


Astonishing. The Reason I Jump builds one of the strongest bridges yet constructed between the world of autism and the neurotypical world.... There are many more questions I’d like to ask Naoki, but the first words I’d say to him are "thank you."
Sunday Times (UK)


This is a guide to what it feels like to be autistic... In Mitchell and Yoshida’s translation, [Higashida] comes across as a thoughtful writer with a lucid simplicity that is both childlike and lyrical.... Higashida is living proof of something we should all remember: in every autistic child, however cut off and distant they may outwardly seem, there resides a warm, beating heart.
Financial Times (UK)


Higashida’s child’s-eye view of autism is as much a winsome work of the imagination as it is a user’s manual for parents, carers and teachers.... This book gives us autism from the inside, as we have never seen it.... [Higashida] offers readers eloquent access into an almost entirely unknown world.
Independent (UK)


Like millions of parents confronted with autism, Mitchell and his wife found themselves searching for answers and finding few that were satisfactory. Help, when it arrived, came not from some body of research but from the writings of a Japanese schoolboy, Naoki Higashida. The Reason I Jump...is a book that acts like a door to another logic, explaining why an autistic child might flap his hands in front of his face, disappear suddenly from home—or jump.
Telegraph (UK)


This is a wonderful book. I defy anyone not to be captivated, charmed and uplifted by it.
Evening Standard London


Whether or not you have experienced raising a child who is autistic...this little book, which packs immeasurable honesty and truth into its pages, will simply detonate any illusions, assumptions, and conclusions you've made about the condition.... What Higashida has done by communicating his reality is to offer carers a way forward and offer teachers new ways of working with the children, and thus opening up and expanding the possibilities for autistic kids to feel less alone. All that in less than 200 pages? What an accomplishment.
Herald Dublin


The Reason I Jump is an enlightening, touching and heart-wrenching read. Naoki asks for our patience and compassion—after reading his words, it’s impossible to deny that request.
Yorkshire Post (UK)


Every page dismantles another preconception about autism.... Once you understand how Higashida managed to write this book, you lose your heart to him.
New Statesman (UK)


A rare road map into the world of severe autism...[Higashida’s] insights...unquestionably give those of us whose children have autism just a little more patience, allowing us to recognize the beauty in ‘odd’ behaviors where perhaps we saw none.
People


Just thirteen years old, effectively unable to speak, Higashida used a special alphabet grid to compose this slim, informative book, which provides an unprecedented look into the mind of a young person with autism.... Higashida gallantly attempts to explain why he and others with autism do the things they do.... Surely one of the most remarkable books yet to be featured in these pages.
Publishers Weekly


In addition to demystifying his condition and translating his experience, the author intersperses some short fables and a concluding short story that shows remarkable empathy and imagination, as the death of an autistic boy leaves a family transformed. "[Higashida] says that he aspires to be a writer, but it's obvious to me that he already is one," writes Mitchell. Anyone struggling to understand autism will be grateful for the book and translation.
Kirkus Reviews