This month is dedicated to raising awareness on autism:

During the early '70s, the Autism Society launched a nationwide campaign to inform individuals about the brain-based disorder, its effects, and the potential of those diagnosed with the condition. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a condition characterized by challenges with communication, social skills, and repetitive behaviors. The symptoms of ASD vary from mild to severe and create a vast community of people that manifest the condition in different ways. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 1 in 68 children across the United States has been identified with autism spectrum disorder. This is an increase of 30 percent since previous estimates in 2012. Signs of autism can show up between 2 and 3 years of age and in some cases, even earlier. 

Check out some resources that we have related to this topic:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Call Number: H127c
Publication Date: 2003
Narrated by a 15-year-old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions.
 
 
Exiting Nirvana by C. Claibourne; Oliver Sacks (Foreword by)
Call Number: 616.898 P235zp
Publication Date: 2001
Reprising her own now classic work The Siege, which covered the early years of her autistic daughter's life, Clara Claiborne Park gives us a moving, eloquent portrait of Jessy as an autistic adult -- still struggling with language, with hypersensitivities and obsessions, and with the social interactions that most of us take for granted, but at the same time achieving more than her parents could have hoped for, becoming an accomplished artist, and growing into an active member of her family and community.
 
Autism by Francesca Happé
Call Number: 616.898 H252a
Publication Date: 1994
Autism is a fascinating yet perplexing disorder that continues to intrigue researchers and clinicians studying brain and behavior. In this lucid and elegant book, Francesca Happe provides a concise overview of current psychological theory and research that synthesizes the established work on the biological foundations, cognitive characteristics, and behavioral manifestations of this disorder. She focuses her discussion on the cognitive approaches that deal with both thought and feeling--those hypotheses that link brain to action, deepen our understanding of the autistic person's view of the world, and offer better approaches to effectively managing the behavior of people with autism struggling to live in our world. The book reviews the latest research into the communication, socialization, and imagination impairments in autism, and further distinguishes the levels of severity in the spectrum of autistic disorders. Happe also includes a discussion of the talented few--high-functioning autistic individuals with Asperger's syndrome--and of the many childhood behavioral disorders, unrelated to autism, that manifest autistic-like symptoms. Autism is an important and much-needed contribution to the literature. 
 
The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida; K. A. Yoshida (Translator); David Mitchell (Translator, Introduction by)
Call Number: 616.858 H634rxm 2013
Publication Date: 2013
Written by Naoki Higashida, a very smart, very self-aware, and very charming thirteen-year-old boy with autism, it is a one-of-a-kind memoir that demonstrates how an autistic mind thinks, feels, perceives, and responds in ways few of us can imagine. Parents and family members who never thought they could get inside the head of their autistic loved one at last have a way to break through to the curious, subtle, and complex life within.  Using an alphabet grid to painstakingly construct words, sentences, and thoughts that he is unable to speak out loud, Naoki answers even the most delicate questions that people want to know. Questions such as: "Why do people with autism talk so loudly and weirdly?" "Why do you line up your toy cars and blocks?" "Why don't you make eye contact when you're talking?" and "What's the reason you jump?" (Naoki's answer: "When I'm jumping, it's as if my feelings are going upward to the sky.") With disarming honesty and a generous heart, Naoki shares his unique point of view on not only autism but life itself. His insights--into the mystery of words, the wonders of laughter, and the elusiveness of memory--are so startling, so strange, and so powerful that you will never look at the world the same way again. 
 
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
Call Number: C5465a 2004
Publication Date: 2004
Moose Flannagan moves with his family to Alcatraz so his dad can work as a prison guard and his sister, Natalie, can attend a special school.  But Natalie has autism, and when she's denied admittance to the school, the stark setting of Alcatraz begins to unravel the tenuous coping mechanisms Moose's family has used for dealing with her disorder. When Moose meets Piper, the cute daughter of the Warden, he knows right off she's trouble.  But she's also strangely irresistible.  All Moose wants to do is protect Natalie, live up to his parents' expectations, and stay out of trouble.  But on Alcatraz, trouble is never very far away. Set in 1935, when guards actually lived on Alcatraz Island with their families.  Choldenko's second novel brings humor to the complexities of family dynamics and illuminates the real struggle of a kid trying to free himself from the "good boy" stance he's taken his whole life.