The concept for this book came about the second night of t-ball practice in the summer of 2008. We overheard one child say to another about our son, "there's that weird kid." It broke our hearts... they were just preschoolers and already labeling our little boy and singling him out. But I suppose they didn't know any better. Zach's behaviors were strange. I recognized that. It didn’t ease the sting of hearing those words, however, and the pain of knowing this was probably just the first of many, many times he'd be teased.

As the first day of Kindergarten approached, I had a brilliant idea (moms usually do!) What if I could get the kids on Zachary's side before they made judgements about his behaviors and thought of him as "weird?" What if I was the one to teach them a little bit about autism so that they'd take Zachary under their wing and look out for him vs. avoiding or teasing him?

So I created our first book, A New Friend with Autism, and read it to his class on the first day of school. It was hugely successful in every way we'd hoped, and more. The kids in Zachary's class did drink in all the information, they did seem to process Zach's differences and cut him some slack. They did make the effort to reach out to him and include him in activities. They did take him under their wing and protect him. They kept the book in the classroom and enjoyed reading it throughout the year. Zachary's teacher, para, autism specialist and speech therapist all encouraged me to publish the book. And while that may be something to consider, I felt more strongly that there should be a way to make what was so successful for us available to other parents. So, we've launched myautismbook.com ~ a place where you can work with us to create your own book ~ sharing your child's unique strengths and differences and personal story with his class, and the world.