George and Sam: Two Boys, One Family, and Autism » (Reprint)

For the parents, families, and friends of the 1 in 250 autistic children born annually in the United States, George and Sam provides a unique look into the life of the autistic child.

Charlotte Moore has three children, George, Sam, and Jake. George and Sam are autistic. George and Sam takes the reader from the births of each of the two boys, along the painstaking path to diagnosis, interventions, schooling and more. She writes powerfully about her family and her sons, and allows readers to see the boys behind the label of autism. Their often puzzling behavior, unusual food aversions, and the different ways that autism effects George and Sam lend deeper insight into this confounding disorder.

George and Sam emerge from her narrative as distinct, wonderful, and at times frustrating children who both are autistic through and through. Moore does not feel the need to search for cause or cure, but simply to find the best ways to help her sons. She conveys to readers what autism is and isn't, what therapies have worked and what hasn't been effective, and paints a moving, memorable portrait life with her boys.

Charlotte Moore is a writer and journalist who lives in Sussex, England with her three sons. She is the author of four novels and three children's book. For two years she wrote a highly acclaimed column in the Guardian called "Mind the Gap" about life with George and Sam. She is a contributor to many publications.

The Washington Post - Carolyn See

Charlotte Moore has not one but two autistic kids. She also has a non-autistic son, who has provided her with a convenient means of comparison. She is a professional writer, extremely competent, methodical and intelligent. Between her two boys, she has had occasion to try almost every treatment or diet or therapy that may alleviate the disorder. She provides a useful list of organizations at the back of the book and during her narrative describes a goodly portion of the sometimes harrowing, sometimes amusing behavior of autistic children—what the often bewildered parents of the newly diagnosed may fairly expect in the future.

But Moore gives readers only half the information they need. She explains the symptoms that nervous parents should look out for, describes what they should do to care for these youngsters. (She stops at puberty.) She tells us what to do; she just doesn't tell us how to do it.

Acknowledgments     xi
Foreword   Nick Hornby     xiii
Prologue     1
Does It Run in the Family?     7
The Wonderbaby     18
Please Replace the Handset and Try Again     37
Two in the Family     53
Diagnosis     70
Our Path to Diagnosis     90
Is There a Cure?     104
Sam's Crash     128
Off the Couch     138
Mild Peril     151
Blackberries and Tumble Dryers     165
Ketchup with Everything     165
Education, Education, Education     198
Did You Sleep Well, Dear?     217
What Do They Do All Day?     225
God and the Tooth Fairy     247
Wear and Tear     260
Compensations     273
What Next?     282
Reading List     291
Directory of Useful Addresses     293