Friday, June 5, 2009

heavy handed or of no consequence?

Okay. So I may or may not have blogged about this before. Maybe over on MySpace at one point. Anyway, I have an autistic son. Great kid, but he's kind of a loner, so he doesn't get invited to too many birthday parties. Pretty much only to the ones where they invite the whole class. Like this weekend's party.

So I just went shopping for this girl's birthday gift. On principle (and also because it's what I enjoyed at that age--and still do!), I usually buy books as presents. I tuck the gift receipts into them, just in case the recipient's not a reader or is and has already read the titles I chose. Today, when I was in Barnes & Noble, there was a great big middle grade display with RULES by Cynthia Lord featured front and center, so I picked it up (in addition to a couple other paperback titles). My question is this: Even though the book's won numerous awards and features a Newbery medal on its cover, is it preachy to gift an issue book (specifically, my son's issue) to a classmate? I mean, in some ways, I hope it helps her understand why my son does so many offbeat things, but in another way, I don't want to draw attention to his label. I just don't know. Maybe she'll read the book and not even make the connection, so I'm stressing over nothing. Anyone want to weigh in on this one?

2 comments:

Catherine @ Suburban Vampire said...

That's a tricky one, Ara. It might be something that does attract unwanted attention to him, and, as I know from my own kid in his age range, it's really easy for parents to be embarrassing at this point, even while trying to do the right thing. I might suggest going for something else...and giving the book to him and his siblings.

Ara Burklund said...

Yeah, I wondered. Maybe I'll just give her the other two books. I'd kind of like to read it myself anyway. Thanks, Cathy. : )