Publisher's Synopsis
Travis shares about his first through third grade experiences in Elementary school. He started to have a hard time fitting in and relating to the other students. He also had problems with having accidents in his pants. One day this happened at school and his cousin would end up embarrassing him by telling the entire class that he went number 2 in his pants. Travis shares about autism in this book. Travis shares how he was bullied in first grade by students in the class. Stephan and Shawn were both the class bullies and they liked to pick on people who were vulnerable like Travis. He was an easy target because he was so naive socially and did not understand how to relate to the other kids. He was often singled out and left alone which made him an easier target for bullies. Travis developed a special interest in basketball in third grade. He was already watching every basketball game he could on the television but now he was very interested in the school basketball teams. He had a cousin who played on the boys' basketball team and this one of his friend's Sarah had a sister named Kortney who played on the basketball team. Travis would become obsessed with his special interest. He would go to the games and sit with Sarah and talk about basketball with her Travis had a hard time with not carrying on with his special interest too much and that pushed a lot of people away and drove them nuts. He is sure that he drove Sarah nuts by asking her about basketball all the time but this was his special interest and it as hard for him not to talk about it. Travis shares some developmental problems that put him behind the other kids in school. He also talks about fine motor skills and how to improve fine motor skills. Travis had to work hard at the young age of seven years old to try and improve his writing skills. Travis talks about how he escapes into his imagination and creates a make believe world to help him cope with the social isolation and loneliness that come along with having autism. Some of Travis' worst days at school were days in which he had a substitute teacher. He needed structure and a schedule and the real teachers kept to a schedule. But it was nearly impossible for a substitute to follow the same exact schedule as my real teacher. Read about some of Travis' coping mechanisms to help him get through the school day in this eye opening book about life as a child with autism.
