A Different Kettle of Fish

A Different Kettle of Fish

A Day in the Life of a Physics Student With Autism

by Michael Barton





This book really strikes a chord with me . I am autistic myself and can struggle with idiom sometimes , and it usually leads to confusion. The cover of this book sums it all up - to my autistic mind I see a drawing of two kettles of fish and wonder why there is such a thing . Then I realise it is there to illustrate an idiom that I don't quite understand . However - to a neurotypical mind , they would probably look at the illustration and see the allusion straight away and be amused at the joke that would take me some time to get .


This is a brilliant book which uses situations and illustrations to highlight occurrences that tend to confuse the autistic mind , and by so doing enables neurotypicals to understand what it can be like to be autistic . Often people get frustrated when I don't understand typical everyday situations , but I'm living in a world that constantly throws confusion at me that I struggle to get by . At times , reading the book I would think "and...?" as I was reading from an autistic perspective and the author was just highlighting the kind of things that happen to me all the time , but when I  try to see how a neurotypical would look at that situation , then I fully understand the point that he is trying to convey.


This is a great book , but one that I would strongly advise for neurotypical people to understand the autistic mind and just what it can be like to have autism .


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