Sometimes My Brother

Includes steps to write a similar book, personalized for a child with autism.

This is an invaluable contribution to helping typically developing children understand that a child with autism is a child first, and is someone interesting to know. Sarah gives insight into the sibling relationship in a way only a child would know. The book is heart-warming and introspective, with a writing style that makes it appropriate for children and adults alike.

Jamaica Kincaid's brother Devon Drew died of AIDS on January 19, 1996, at the age of thirty-three. Kincaid's incantatory, poetic, and often shockingly frank recounting of her brother's life and death is also a story of her family on the island of Antigua, a constellation centered on the powerful, sometimes threatening figure of the writer's mother. My Brother is an unblinking record of a life that ended too early, and it speaks volumes about the difficult truths at the heart of all families. My Brother is a 1997 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction.

Sammy does not go to school with his older brother. Sammy has to go to school on a special bus. They cannot play in the park together. Sammy lies under the tree and watches the leaves. They are constantly at cross purposes because Sammy is autistic and does not know how to be a 'normal brother.' Then one day the older brother realises that he should not demand everything on his own terms and that Sammy's way of doing things may not be so bad. This moving book realistically portrays life with an autistic child in the family. It does not promise any simple solution but reminds us all that understanding and compromise are vital ingredients in a good relationship.

An older brother shows what his younger brother does during a day.

This story is about a little boy, Reed, who is very different than most little children. Reed has a severe speech disorder, Apraxia, which leaves him almost completely unintelligible to his peers. This story is told from the viewpoint of his older sister, as she is well aware of his challenges and his triumphs. Instead of exclussively focusing on what Reed is unable to do, this story portrays the many things he can do with his peers, in spie of his inability to speak to them. 'My Brother is Very Special' gently teaches young children about acceptance in a way that they cna developmentally understand. By reading this story to young children, we encourage them to ask questions about differences they see in others. In return, this soothes their fears and fosters their acceptance. Although the main character in this book has a speech disorder, it is written in a way that makes it universal. With developmentally appropriate text and bright, whimsical illustrations, 'My Brother is Very Special' is perfect for all young children.

Meet Ant, the little brother who's big on laughs. In four upbeat stories, Ant and his big brother confront the monster under the bed, recreate the story of the three little pigs, and write a letter to Santa—in July! Sometimes funny, always endearing, Ant is invariably entertaining.? "A great storyteller and a great illustrator are at their very best in this tender, funny easy-to-read."—Booklist, starred review

The long-awaited second novel from David Chariandy, whose debut, Soucouyant, was nominated for nearly every major literary prize in Canada and published internationally. An intensely beautiful, searingly powerful, tightly constructed novel, Brother explores questions of masculinity, family, race, and identity as they are played out in a Scarborough housing complex during the sweltering heat and simmering violence of the summer of 1991. With shimmering prose and mesmerizing precision, David Chariandy takes us inside the lives of Michael and Francis. They are the sons of Trinidadian immigrants, their father has disappeared and their mother works double, sometimes triple shifts so her boys might fulfill the elusive promise of their adopted home. Coming of age in The Park, a cluster of town houses and leaning concrete towers in the disparaged outskirts of a sprawling city, Michael and Francis battle against the careless prejudices and low expectations that confront them as young men of black and brown ancestry -- teachers stream them into general classes; shopkeepers see them only as thieves; and strangers quicken their pace when the brothers are behind them. Always Michael and Francis escape into the cool air of the Rouge Valley, a scar of green wilderness that cuts through their neighbourhood, where they are free to imagine better lives for themselves. Propelled by the pulsing beats and styles of hip hop, Francis, the older of the two brothers, dreams of a future in music. Michael's dreams are of Aisha, the smartest girl in their high school whose own eyes are firmly set on a life elsewhere. But the bright hopes of all three are violently, irrevocably thwarted by a tragic shooting, and the police crackdown and suffocating suspicion that follow. With devastating emotional force David Chariandy, a unique and exciting voice in Canadian literature, crafts a heartbreaking and timely story about the profound love that exists between brothers and the senseless loss of lives cut short with the shot of a gun.