Looking After Louis

Ely, Lesley. Looking After Louis. Illinois: Albert Whitman & Co., 2004.

Looking After Louis is a story of a young boy with autism who is included in a regular classroom. Louis doesn’t say much in class, other than repeating what his teacher or fellow classmates say, and he is left to his own devices being very detached from the classroom. Louis never participates in activities at recess until one day he brings his new soccer ball to school and discovers he has “magic feet.” Louis’s new interest in soccer sparks a friendship with a classmate, Sam, who later helps Louis create his own version of the game. Louis and Sam are later allowed to play Louis’s new game at a time when it is not recess, but when the injustices of the situation are pointed out by the class, the teacher makes it understood that “we’re allowed to break rules for special people.”

Ely does a good job illustrating how a child with autism in a mainstream classroom might act and appear to regular students through the text she uses in her book Looking After Louis. Although it is never mentioned that Louis has autism until the back page of the book, it is something the class seems to know and accept without explanation. The situations throughout the story create an atmosphere of tolerance as not only the teacher, but the students as well, encourage Louis to participate in activities inside and outside of the classroom. The overall acceptance of autism in mainstream classrooms portrayed in this book is a great example for teachers and students everywhere and this text should be incorporated into early elementary classrooms.