We’ve Got the Midas Touch: Autism Publications Win Gold
The Official Autism 101 Manual has won a Gold Medal in the 2007 Independent Publisher Book Awards. It was judged top entry in the Health/Medicine/Nutrition category and was the only book on autism to win any award.
My congratulations go to publisher Karen Simmons, as well as my thanks for bringing me in as one of the many contributors to The Official Autism 101 Manual, including Temple Grandin, Tony Attwood and the late Bernard Rimland.
Learn more at www.autism101manual.com
Autism Asperger’s Digest has won the Gold award in the 2007 National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA) Parenting Resources competition. Digest will now get front-and-center coverage on Parenthood.com, one of the nation’s largest parenting Web sites, and an audience of 4.2 million parents through more than 40 regional parenting publications. Digest managing editor Veronica Zysk is “delighted with the NAPPA Gold Award and the nod of recognition it gives to the many talented parent and professional writers who contribute to the Autism Asperger’s Digest. The knowledge they share is invaluable to our community.”
Congratulations, Bryce – times two!
It was yet another one of those moments I will never get over. Bryce graduated Jackson Middle School on June 15, one of a handful of kids called up for a special academic award – maintaining a 4.0 throughout his 8th grade year. While Bryce’s teachers modestly give him all the credit, I must deflect some of the glory back on them. This year’s core teachers took Bryce’s IEP very, very seriously. They adapted materials, assessments and assignments to his learning style, and they were just as enthusiastic about learning from him as they were about teaching him. We can never be grateful enough for teachers like Roberta Rossi, Dave Molloy and Rachel Lee. Salute!
And now we embark on an even greater adventure – high school. Although Bryce has been successful throughout our excellent elementary and middle schools, the time has come for us to leave the public school system for an environment better able to guide Bryce through the home stretch to adulthood. He earned admission to Thomas A. Edison High School, a unique private school specializing in students with learning differences. Edison’s small class size, customized approach to learning, emphasis on responsible social interaction, reciprocal relationship with a large high school next door and extensive transition-to-adulthood program were powerful draws for us as parents and for Bryce himself.
We will follow Bryce through Thomas Edison High School in my Autism Asperger’s Digest column, Postcards from the Road Less Traveled, beginning with an introduction to Edison, The Little High School That Does, in the September-October 2007 issue. An excerpt will post on my website at that time. Learn more about Thomas A. Edison High School here.
P.S. We are twice-grateful to Edison. The photo of Bryce above was taken on the island of Oahu after we won a trip to Hawai’i in the Edison annual auction’s raffle!“Search Inside” Ellen’s books on Amazon.com
All of my books now carry the “Search Inside” feature on Amazon.com. This is a wonderful opportunity to test-drive the book before you buy, something in which I am a big believer. We all have finite financial resources and even more finite reading time. “Search Inside” will give you a better sense of whether the book is right for you or someone you know.Coming in September
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I think of the essays in this book as trips to the tool shed wherein we store all the virtual hardware needed for this creative construction project that is our child with autism. As autism is a shifty foe, so shift our needs, seemingly with the wind, from day to day and even from hour to hour. Sometimes we need a machete to hack through the education bureaucracy. Sometimes we need insect repellant to deal with the inevitable unkindness of strangers. Sometimes we need a cultivator to sow and encourage the growth we know will come if we are patient and steadfast in our work. And sometimes we need a soldering iron to weld our broken hearts back together. All of this you will find in these pages as we tackle a spectrum of challenges from nuts-and-bolts everyday issues like math homework, video games and tricky behavior to the larger life issues that have no simple answers. When to take risks and when to play it safe. When to step up and when to back off. How to hang on and when to let go.”
Read the first chapter here, You Know More Than You Think You Know
Repeat! Ten Things Your Student with Autism Wishes You Knew named ForeWord Book of the Year finalist
For the second consecutive year, I’m honored to be a ForeWord Book of the Year finalist, this year in the Education category. Last year, Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew was an Honorable Mention winner in the Parenting category.
ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards were established to bring increased attention from librarians and booksellers to the literary achievements of independent publishers and their authors. This year’s competition drew over 1,400 entries.
Read an excerpt from the book here.Foreign translations available
Foreign translations for Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew in Chinese, Arabic and Korean are under way. The book is already available in Dutch. Contact Ellen for more information about foreign translations.Sign up for Ellen’s newsletter
If you haven’t joined our newsletter community, click here. Ellen’s monthly newsletter is free and it’s fun. Meet your fellow readers, catch Ellen’s monthly rant, On My Soapbox, keep current with her books and writings and read helpful articles from others. Click here to sign-up now!Update: Senior Dad’s podcast conversation with Ellen
San Franciscan Stan Goldberg is the host of Senior Dad, a weekly podcast about parenting issues. Stan's two-part interview with me ranges over many topics within autism and ancillary to autism. How will we fund the growing number of students needing special education? What does the shocking high school dropout rate in America say about how we are educating all learners? What advice do parents of newly diagnosed children most need to hear? How are sibling relationships affected by autism?
May 2007 update: Stan tells us that “we have inaugurated a new briefing room page “Autism Briefing Room”. On this page we will place all the Autism resources we develop. When someone has a child diagnosed with autism this briefing room page will be a place to develop understanding about autism and hear what others have experienced. It is also a place to learn of exciting developments in autism education and some of the speed bumps along the way.
Please save the link below and give it to anyone you feel would benefit from the information. I am personally proud that so much autism education and field work is being done in the San Francisco Bay area. All our children will be better educated because of it.
http://www.srdad.com/SrDad/Autism.html
August Reads
A Cool Pool Story is this month's Postcards from the Road Less Traveled column in Autism-Asperger's July-August 2007.
The View from the Other Side of the Desk will appear in the Spring/Summer issue of Kidspeace’s Healing magazine. Are you a ‘challenging parent?’ What special education teachers would like you to know.
A Civil War Short Story
Ancestry magazine, July-August 2007
Coming soon
The Little High School That Does – Postcards from the Road Less Traveled, Autism Asperger’s Digest, September-October 2007 Read an excerpt here.
What Tiggers Do Best
Exceptional Children: Navigating Learning Disabilities and Special Education
Children’s Voice, September-October 2007
The Kindness of Strangers
Ancestry magazine, September-October 2007
So Many Books, So Little Time
Healing, Fall-Winter 2007
Ancestry Magazine cover story celebrates family hero
“Fate doesn't play fair. For one family historian, that’s the driving force behind celebrating the life of a relative who died long before his game was up.” That family historian is Ellen, and her story, Too Soon, graces the cover of the September-October issue.
Download PDF of Too Soon from Ancestry Magazine [1.9 mb]
Too Soon brings forth reader stories
Too Soon, Ellen's Ancestry magazine cover story, inspired some readers to send their own stories of family heroes who died in courageous service to our country. Please take a moment to honor their service and their memory.
Second Lt. Delmar Dale Pollock (1918 -- 1944)
Lt. Pollock's niece, Bettye Pribyl of Victoria, Texas is the author of Distinguished Service -- A Tribute to Bud Pollock. Lt. Pollock was lost on March 4, 1944 while participating in a daring military first -- a daylight strike on Berlin by over 500 B17s.
Read about Bettye's search for answers here.
First Sergeant Richard Lee Ekiss (1915 -- 1943)
Sgt. Ekiss' story, A Grateful Nation, was written by his son John Lane of Northville, Michigan, and appeared in the Friends Journal, published by the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. Sgt. Ekiss perished while attempting to save others during the infamous sinking of the HMT Rohna off the coast of Algeria on November 26, 1943.
iParenting spotlights Ten Things
iParenting Media Network has highlighted Ellen's Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew in a recent feature article in their section Special Kids Today entitled From Their Point of View: Getting Inside the Head of a Child with Autism.
"Children's author Beverly Cleary inserted herself in the mind of a 5-year-old kindergartner in Ramona the Pest; Cleary had a knack for "speaking for" the young girl," writes Jenn Director Knudsen. "Award-winning author and columnist Ellen Notbohm has that same knack with a growing group of children who have a harder time communicating than the fictional Ramona Quimby ever did."
Read From Their Point of View here.
Zeg hallo naar onze vrienden
in Nederland!
Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You
Knew is now available in Dutch.
For more information, please visit
the publisher's web site.
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©2008 Ellen Notbohm | Third Variation Strategies, L.L.C.
