Bookwoman recommends
Two titles about the life of Temple Grandin.
“Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism” by Temple Grandin
This autobiography is the 2011 One Book, One Broomfield selection. Grandin is a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, and has made a name for herself as a designer of humane livestock-handling facilities. How she has achieved success despite having autism is a remarkable story.
The book covers three areas: 1.) Grandin’s personal life, schooling, and spiritual and emotional growth. 2.) Her work with animals and in the stockyards. 3.) The characteristics of autism and her ideas and suggestions for parents dealing with it.
When Grandin began showing signs of autism as a young child, her mother took her to doctors and counselors for advice. Autism was little known at that time, and her mother was blamed for “causing” Temple’s behavior by coldness and lack of nurturing. Grandin relates how her frustrated acting out got her removed from classrooms and schools. Luckily, her family had the means to get her into private schools and to fight for her needs, though her father was not supportive, and wanted her institutionalized.
Grandin doesn’t think in words, but in pictures. She says for her, “taking in information is like programming a computer.” In dealing with livestock, Grandin has the unique ability to see things from a cow’s viewpoint, and thus can design equipment that calms the cattle and makes for effortless handling. The sections on slaughter houses can be difficult to read.
Like most people on the autistic spectrum, Grandin isn’t emotionally wired like the average person. She has had to purposefully learn how to respond appropriately to touch, to hidden meanings in conversation and to emotional situations. “People with autism have tremendous difficulty with change.” However, Grandin says, “If I could snap my fingers and become non-autistic I would not do so. Autism is part of who I am.”
This book is a fascinating look into the world of autism. A movie titled “Temple Grandin” has recently won many awards. It enlarges the images we get from this book. The film will be shown during the One Book One Broomfield events. Other books by Grandin include “Animals in Translation” and “The Way I See It.”
“A Thorn In My Pocket: Temple Grandin’s Mother Tells the Family Story” by Eustacia Cutler
This book provides another window into Grandin’s life story and would be good supplemental reading in conjunction “Thinking in Pictures.” Temple’s mother is an interesting person in her own right, and her struggles with an autistic child (called “infant schizophrenia” in the 1950s) are revealing. She had to deal with guilt, conflicting diagnoses, societal pressures and a non-supportive husband in raising Temple and her three siblings.
After a divorce she reinvents herself, lives a fulfilling life and eventually, at Temple’s urging, joins her oldest daughter on the speaking circuit, attempting to help other parents of autistic children.
Kerry Pettis is a retired elementary school teacher and children’s librarian who has lived in Broomfield since 1975. Reading is her favorite occupation.
