What do you think?
Rate this book
Strange Sayings and Confusing Conversations: Short Stories for Autistic Kids About the Weird Things People Say
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 20, 2025
Many books take it upon themselves to deliver their cause or purpose, as well as entertain – to give a lesson that is also readable and enjoyable with it. This demands it do that, for potentially the most awkward audience, and not once but several times over. This is a book of stories (and relevant adults' notes) that are designed to be absorbed by the autistic mind, giving across the fact that us adults speak in a funny peculiar way, and giving the reader pleasure alongside the examples. Seeing so many books fail with the ideal balance of edutainment, how would this survive?
First off is a kid learning about sarcasm – seeing it in reactions to an untidy bedroom (his), cat's mess, and dreadful clothes. He nails it and gets to use it himself once it's fixed in his mind what it is and what the point of it is. Then a girl faces up to her uncle's use of idiomatic language and metaphors. Thirdly is a story from the point of view of a dog, and I in my ignorance thought this would not work for the very reasons idiom causes hurdles in the autistic, but it certainly does, and is very funny with it.
Then we have Darius with his insistence on people being precise when they speak to him involving data, like when he should be ready by, or what word-count they expect of him for school writing tasks. A girl is confused about why her parents are so accepting of the pesky neighbour they talk so negatively about in private, while another girl, who dislikes surprises, finds it awkward to accept an unwanted gift with sincerity. In between those is perhaps the story that does drop the fun the most on behalf of the lesson/example, where a girl is too keen on monologuing about horses, in ways that only kill conversations stone dead.
So no, the whole thing is not just about the strange sayings as such, but this certainly offers many instances of communication issues for those on the spectrum. And I think it's done it all very well – it might not need to be re-read for the great characters or the narrative surprises, but it's certainly very readable, and all presented in dyslexia-friendly manner, what's more. Here are gentle tips, through story and through advice, about how best to talk, what perhaps not to say, and how to reboot a conversation with a simple "sorry, but I didn't understand that phrase" or "you're going too fast, can you explain that part of your equine knowledge?". The autistic child will learn about fitting into adult conversation, and the opposite will be absorbed, of how the adult might tweak their verbal output to be coped with better. Wishing this every success, this is probably five stars – there's very little wrong with this uncommon little title indeed.
First off is a kid learning about sarcasm – seeing it in reactions to an untidy bedroom (his), cat's mess, and dreadful clothes. He nails it and gets to use it himself once it's fixed in his mind what it is and what the point of it is. Then a girl faces up to her uncle's use of idiomatic language and metaphors. Thirdly is a story from the point of view of a dog, and I in my ignorance thought this would not work for the very reasons idiom causes hurdles in the autistic, but it certainly does, and is very funny with it.
Then we have Darius with his insistence on people being precise when they speak to him involving data, like when he should be ready by, or what word-count they expect of him for school writing tasks. A girl is confused about why her parents are so accepting of the pesky neighbour they talk so negatively about in private, while another girl, who dislikes surprises, finds it awkward to accept an unwanted gift with sincerity. In between those is perhaps the story that does drop the fun the most on behalf of the lesson/example, where a girl is too keen on monologuing about horses, in ways that only kill conversations stone dead.
So no, the whole thing is not just about the strange sayings as such, but this certainly offers many instances of communication issues for those on the spectrum. And I think it's done it all very well – it might not need to be re-read for the great characters or the narrative surprises, but it's certainly very readable, and all presented in dyslexia-friendly manner, what's more. Here are gentle tips, through story and through advice, about how best to talk, what perhaps not to say, and how to reboot a conversation with a simple "sorry, but I didn't understand that phrase" or "you're going too fast, can you explain that part of your equine knowledge?". The autistic child will learn about fitting into adult conversation, and the opposite will be absorbed, of how the adult might tweak their verbal output to be coped with better. Wishing this every success, this is probably five stars – there's very little wrong with this uncommon little title indeed.
Displaying 1 of 1 review