The Reason I Jump

I saw The Reason I Jump on The Daily Show back when I still watched The Daily Show (back when Jon Stewart still hosted it), so it's been years that this book has been floating around in the back of my head as something I should read. And then I found it at the library's used book sale and snapped it up. My impulsive book purchases are rarely quite as impulsive as they seem.

This book was written by a thirteen-year-old, nonverbal, autistic boy in Japan. He explains his day-to-day life to a neurotypical audience, in a effort to make himself and people like him better understood. All he really wants is understanding and patience and the opportunity to have a fulfilling life where he isn't constantly pitied and made to feel like a burden.

This was more of an interview than a story. Actually, it was more of a questionnaire, with Higashida briefly given answers to a bunch of questions. These are interspersed with a handful of short stories. The book was interesting and insightful and really does illustrate that we all want the same things out of life. It was also very short, which is good as the format started to grow a bit tiresome.

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