Looking After Louis Book Review

Ely, Louis. Looking After Louis. Morton Grove: Albert Whitman & Company, 2004.Looking After Louis is a story about a boy names Louis who has autism. A young girl in his class talks to him, but Louis just responds by repeating what she says. When they go outside for recess, some of the students ask Louis if he wants to play, but he just repeats what they say or does not move. One day at recess Louis runs out onto the field where the other boys are playing soccer and started chasing a boy, Sam, playfully around the field. Later that day Louis drew a picture of him playing soccer, so the teacher let him and Sam go play soccer outside. The young girl asks why Louis is allowed to go outside and play during school time, and she learns that you're "allowed to break the rules for special people."

I liked this story and the fact that it promoted the idea of accepting and understanding the differences within people. The little girl learns why Louis is allowed to go outside, and more importantly, understands it. Sam also accepts Louis and lets him play in their soccer game. I think that it shows that you should accept people for who they are and that, when given the chance, they can surprise you. I also like how the author incorporates different aspects of autism into the story. Someone who reads this story can begin to understand some of the characteristics of autism, and some of their tendencies as individuals. It also shows how Louis is in his own world at times, which is something that autistic kids tend to do. The one thing that bothered me, and I actually had to read the story very slowly and carefully to make sure, is that it does not mention that Louis has autism. I feel like that for someone, like the little girl in the story, to truly understand what is going on, they need to know what the disability is. At the end of the story, there is a section explaining that Louis has autism, and it also talks about what it is. However, I would have liked to see some of this information in the actual story.

Looking After Louis

Ely, Lesley. Looking After Louis. First. London, England:
Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2004.

Placed in a elementary school class, Looking After Louis follows a classmate of an autistic child as they interact with in the class. Louis is a student with autism, who is continually doing activities, as well as expressing behaviors in class that are very different from the other classmates. It is his desire to play soccer at recess that comes as a welcomed surprise to his teachers, as well as a learning experience for the narrator of the story.

Over all, I feel this is a really good resource to use in a classroom, especially one in which their may be a child with autism. Not only does it shed an encouraging light on inclusion in classrooms, but is also features a message for all readers. Also, a psychologist wrote a short section at the end of the book which includes information specifically about autism,along with specific characteristics, and an explanation for Louis's placement in a general education room. There are also suggestions for teachers with a student with autism in their classroom at the conclusion of the book. Another wonderful aspect of the book is that the setting is at a school, but because of how the illustrations are matched with the literature, the setting is less likely to be dated any time soon, so it could be used for years to come. Furthermore, according to the author's biography in the beginning of the book, the characters in the book are based off of students that she had in the past (as she was an English teacher) which makes a lot of sense when considering the placement of the story.

So many parents are concerned with the education of their student, let alone a students with autism. Finding the appropriate resources for their families, as well as making sure the child reaches all potential academically and otherwise is very important. Therefore, when going through the articles on the Autism Today website, I found the information in "Combating Autism" very interesting and helpful in developing my respect for families, as well as for teachers who are working to provide as much help as possible for this growing disability. This relates and compliments the comments at the be back of the book, which focused on helping parents, teachers, as well as other students understand and deal with autism.

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.

Autism Books as a Set

Reflecting on the three books I chose, I think they bring up different issues and situations of children with autism. I found it interesting, however, Looking after Louis and Andy and His Yellow Frisbee had notes about autism in the back of the book, and Ian's Walk: A Story about Autism had a reference note at the very beginning of the book. The notes in the back for Looking after Louis mentioned mainstreaming children with disabilities into the classroom, and Andy and His Yellow Frisbee discussed the symptoms of autism and Ian's Walk discussed the the importance that families play (particularly siblings) and the challenges that family members face. Both Looking after Louis and Ian's Walk had professionals write about the note on autism, whereas in Andy and His Yellow Frisbee it was written by the author.

While searching for books on autism, it was difficult to find many picture books on this topic. There were several novels written for adolescents, yet when looking for picture books at the library, there wasn't much of a selection. I understand that this is a difficult topic to discuss and explain, yet with these three books together, I feel it will help students grasp the understanding better and get an accurate representation of autism. Even though Looking after Louis isn't as highly recommended by me as the other two, it still can add to the classroom library and help children understand about acceptance. The teacher will just have to be careful as to how they use and read that book.

I also noticed that within all three books, the person who was autistic was a boy and drawn as if they were "normal." It's good that they were all drawn similar to other children because they don't have physical characteristics that make them autistic. It's also interesting that these characters were all boys, yet it could be because autism is found more with boys than girls.

Overall, I would recommend this text set because it brings up various topics and from different perspectives of people. Although not included in the text set, I also highly recommend the book, Souls: Beneath and Beyond Autism by, Sharon Rosenbloom. It gives a beautiful and powerful insight into the lives of those who are related or have interacted with children with autism. It's mainly from a parent's perspective, yet adds to having another view point on the topic, in which other adults and parents can relate to.

Here's the website to view Dolly Gray Awards given to different books about children's literature in developmental disabilities:

http://www.dddcec.org/secondarypages/dollygray/Dolly_Gray_Children