Review: The Asperger Teen's Toolkit (Francis Musgrave)

Hello guys, how have you been feeling?
I know I've done a lot of reviews about paganism related book, I'm way too much into the topic and get obsessed from time to time. For the sake of diversity, I decided to do another one about a topic you may be familiar with: Asperger.

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I do not regret having had the adolescence I had, but it would have been pretty much easier if I had read "The Asperger Teen's Toolkit," by Francis Musgrave. It’s  a light book intended for teenagers and young adults with Asperger’s Syndrome, but due to the useful tips and ideas, I’d say that even parents and family members in general could find it useful as well.

Written for a young audience, the style used by the author is simple, without frills or adornments, but with a lot of sense and paragraphs that go straight to the point. Each chapter sounds like what a friend or a professional would say to anyone with this syndrome, and even though I can already find a comfortable way to deal with it and daily life, there are many ideas that I didn’t have and that would have helped me a lot when I was, for example, starting high school.

There are many different chapters that try to look appealing and focus on the topics we as aspies need to know in order to get along with others, and despite there are some phrases that tend to appear over and over, making it a hard reading at some points, it’s a great way to learn  about Asperger’s.

Despite focusing on teens, as I said, parents will find a good way to understand what’s happening in their child’s mind, how they see the world and what may be affecting them in a certain way. Doesn’t offer a lot of description in feelings, but it does made a good job on situations of common life, the problems that may arise and how to deal with them.

I could say that educators should give it a chance as well, as it offers a simple outline of their students with special needs and will help them to prevent any case of bullying and abuse in the classroom. I myself suffered from bullying for a long time in both elementary and high school, and I wonder if things could have been different if my teachers would have know that I wasn’t just “shy” or “introvert.”

Also, I must prevent people who don’t know about the subject from reading “The Asperger Teen's Toolkit” (yet.) It does not offer an introduction, doesn’t describe the signs and will not help to identify or recognize if anyone might have Asperger’s Syndrome; this is, as the title reads, a tool and thus directed for those who already have a medical diagnosis. To get the most out of this book, it is a must to have previous information.

You can expect Francis Musgrave to highlight many aspects of the psychological side of the syndrome, topics that teens might find especially hard to understand: self-identity, relationships, meeting new people and so on. It’s like a window to an Aspie’s heart, to put it in pretty words, but to their minds as well.

I can only give a big thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC of this book. Francis Musgrave really clarified some points for me, things that I still couldn’t completely understand and that will help me, even now that I’m a 22-year-old guy.

Greetings and hugs!

¡Un saludo y un abrazo!