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Autism in Fiction

(page 2)

Blue book cover with matches laid in the shape of a house.

Livvie Owen Lived Here

by Sarah Dooley

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Olivia "Livvie" Owen feels things differently than her parents and two sisters. Livvie is autistic. Her family has had to move repeatedly because of her outbursts. When they again face eviction, Livvie is convinced she has a way to get back to a house where they were all happy, once. The problem is, Livvie burned down that house.

Book cover with illustration of the London Eye ride.

The London Eye Mystery

by Siobhan Dowd

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Ted and Kat watched their cousin Salim board the London Eye, but after half an hour it landed and everyone trooped off—except Salim. Where could he have gone? How on earth could he have disappeared into thin air? Ted and his older sister, Kat, become sleuthing partners, since the police are having no luck. Despite their prickly relationship, they overcome their differences to follow a trail of clues across London in a desperate bid to find their cousin. 

Book cover of photo of the sky with silhouette of tree.

Long Way Down

by Michael Sears

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From the author of the acclaimed, award-winning debut novel "Black Fridays, "comes a story of murder, greed, and corruption--and the lengths to which one man will go for his family. 
"He approached me in the street--bone-thin, gray-bearded, holding out a small envelope. "The man said you'd give me five bucks for it." Inside was a one-word message: RUN." 

Book cover with boardwalk to the sea and a seagull flying and a lone figure in the distance.
Book cover with a large letter M and the profile of a girl's head.
Book cover of night sky with the silhouette images of a boy and girl holding hands and a treehouse.
Book cover with Mind Blind written on it.
Book cover with photo of the back of a little girl who is hiding her face in her arms.
Book cover with city skyline at night.
Book cover illustration of a girl in a hoody leaning against a pole.
Book cover illustration of girl running with a dog in the rain.
Book cover illustration of an old car driving down a dusty road towards a house in the distance.
Book cover of road to a house in black and white except for the road and roof which are in red.
Book cover showing a young boy in a brightly lit room with two cats looking on.
Blue book cover with illustration of a man and woman on a tandem bicycle with a stork carrying a baby flying after them.

Love Anthony

by Lisa Genova

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The story of an accidental friendship that gives a grieving mother a priceless gift: the ability to understand the thoughts of her eight-year-old autistic son and make sense of his brief life.

Two women, each cast adrift by unforseen events in their lives, meet by accident on a Nantucket beach and are drawn into a friendship.

M in the Middle 

by The Students of Limpsfield Grange School & Vicky Martin

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​Life after diagnosis isn't easy for M. Back in her wobbly world, there are lots of changes and ups and downs to get used to, not just for M, but for her friends and family too. Faced with an exciting crush, a pushy friend and an unhelpful Headteacher, how long until the beast of anxiety pounces again?

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Marcelo in the Real World

by Francisco X. Stork

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Marcelo Sandoval hears music no one else can hear--part of the autism-like impairment no doctor has been able to identify--and he's always attended a special school where his differences have been protected. But the summer after his junior year, his father demands that Marcelo work in his law firm's mailroom in order to experience "the real world." There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising coworker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm.

Mind Blind 

by Lari Don

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​Ciaran Bane is a criminal with a special talent: he can read minds. But his skill comes at a price. Lucy's sister is dead: killed for a secret Ciaran's family wants buried. Her blood is on Ciaran's hands. Only together can the unlikely allies discover the deadly secret. They can run but where can they hide if they aren't safe, even in their own minds? Award-winning author Lari Don skilfully weaves a fast-paced world of secrets, power and supernatural abilities in her first book for young teens.

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Piggy

by Mireille Geus 

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I've just had a lousy year, and this is the story of that lousy year. The beginning of it, that is. Just the beginning, actually. Twelve-year-old Lizzy Bekell is autistic. She lives with her mother and attends a special school. Her nickname is Dizzy, which aptly describes the dreamy abstraction that overcomes her when she is faced with situations she finds unpleasant or uncomfortable. She spends her free time waiting at the bus stop (without ever getting on a bus) or standing against a streetlamp and watching other children play. 

Rain Reign

by Ann M. Martin 

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Rose Howard is obsessed with homonyms. She's thrilled that her own name is a homonym, and she purposely gave her dog Rain a name with two homonyms (Reign, Rein), which, according to Rose's rules of homonyms, is very special. Not everyone understands Rose's obsessions, her rules, and the other things that make her different – not her teachers, not other kids, and not her single father.

Rainwater

by Sandra Brown

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Ella Baron runs her Texas boarding house with the efficiency of a ship’s captain and the grace of a gentlewoman. She cooks, cleans, launders, and cares for her ten-year-old son, Solly, a sweet but challenging child whose busy behavior and failure to speak elicits undesired advice from others in town. Ella’s plate is full from sunup to sundown. When a room in her boarding house opens up, the respected town doctor brings Ella a new boarder―the handsome and gallant Mr. David Rainwater.

Red Hill  

by Jamie McGuire

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For Scarlet, raising her two daughters alone makes fighting for tomorrow an everyday battle. Nathan has a wife, but can’t remember what it’s like to be in love; only his young daughter Zoe makes coming home worthwhile. Miranda’s biggest concern is whether her new VW Bug is big enough to carry her sister and their boyfriends on a weekend escape from college finals.

The Real Boy

by Anna Ursu 

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On an island on the edge of an immense sea there is a city, a forest, and a boy named Oscar. Oscar is a shop boy for the most powerful magician in the village, and spends his days in a small room in the dark cellar of his master's shop grinding herbs and dreaming of the wizards who once lived on the island generations ago. Oscar's world is small, but he likes it that way. The real world is vast, strange, and unpredictable. And Oscar does not quite fit in it.

​The Rosie Effect

by Graeme Simsion 

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Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman are back. The Wife Project is complete, and Don and Rosie are happily married and living in New York. But they're about to face a new challenge because - surprise - Rosie is pregnant. 

Don sets about learning the protocols of becoming a father, but his unusual research style gets him into trouble with the law. Fortunately his best friend Gene is on hand to offer advice: he's left Claudia and moved in with Don and Rosie. 

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