February book of the month: A Boy Made of Blocks by Keith Stuart. Read now ahead of author webchat on Wednesday 1 March, 9-10pm.

[RachelMumsnet]

Our February book of the month is A Boy Made of Blocks, Keith Stuart's debut novel and one of Richard and Judy's Spring selection. We have 50 free copies up for grabs and we'll be holding a discussion about the book and webchat with Keith Stuart on Wednesday 1 March, at 9pm.

In this book Keith has drawn on his own experience of raising his autistic son. It's funny and at times deeply moving, expounds the joys and trials of parenting - and has a cracking plot - making it the perfect book to read on a winter's evening.

Find out more about the book and apply for a free copy before Monday 23 January and put the date in your diary to join the discussion and chat to Keith Stuart on this thread on 1 March.

Thanks MN for my copy of this brilliant book. I was a bit dubious at first as at first glance it appeared the book would be focused entirely on Sam's autism, but really this is a book about family and relationships. It centres on Alex who is having difficulties with all his relationships but after finding a way through to his autistic son via Minecraft, he begins to find his way in the rest of his relationships too. Thoroughly enjoyable read.

Have messaged MNHQ, my book never arrived :(

Thanks so much for the book, my son is undergoing assessment for ASD so I was very interested to read it. The book is very easy to read & is informative without being 'text booky'. My 2 boys play Minecraft and I ashamedly admit when they have tried to involve me I have not been interested but now ask questions & let them tell me what they are doing. Many couples will recognise the daily struggles of the family & the toll that having children can have on your relationship, this book talks openly about them & also shows that they can be worked through.

I would definitely recommend this book, I really enjoyed reading it.

Laughed & cried reading this book. Such an insight. Thankyou

Thank you for sending me this book. I've just finished it. It was fascinating. My son, who is not on the spectrum, played Minecraft and I really didn't pay that much attention to his 'worlds', he was quietly playing and I knew he was safe. However, this book opened up to me the intricacies of Minecraft and why my son enjoyed it so much. He's nearly twelve now and does lots of coding which I think Minecraft laid the foundation for. I'm looking forward to the discussion on the 1st March.

I found this an enjoyable read, despite not being a gamer (unless you count the occasional game of Candy Crush or childhood memories of playing Summer and Winter Games on the Commodore 64). I liked how Sam and Alex bonded over Minecraft and how it brought them closer together, and how Sam ended up building something in the game that he knew meant so much to his dad. I liked how it didn't sugarcoat his autism by showing the toll it had taken on the family, but nevertheless had a positive ending with life changing for the better.

Although I presume Keith is a very knowledgeable gamer I also liked how he wrote from a perspective of someone who didn't know much about computer games.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found it to be an easy and rewarding read. It was a book that I didn't really want to put down until it was finished. My knowledge and experience of both Minecraft and autism is somewhat limited. I found that I often felt more empathy towards Alex than Jody, possibly because of his traumatic childhood experience and the story mostly being seen from his viewpoint. (Rationally, I think it should be the reverse, taking into account Jody had taken on practically all of the day to day care of her son with virtually no support.)

I was very surprised how creative and imaginative Minecraft could be, I thought it was just another computer game. (Also I had gained a rather negative opinion of it from looking at the lego sets.)

Why did you give the character of Alex a traumatic background and an almost dysfunctional family? Was it solely for dramatic effect? Was it so we would feel more empathy towards him? (Do you think the reader could have forgiven his behaviour/neglect towards Jody and Sam otherwise?)

I think I read somewhere that you have two sons, only one on the autistic spectrum. Did Minecraft help their relationship? Which one of you realised how beneficial Minecraft could be? Final question: where/how would you start with Minecraft? (Complete novice parent + child.)
(Sorry for rambling.)

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this book. It's a wonderful explanation of how a marriage works - or doesn't - under the pressures of kids (autism being an extra hurdle that the protagonists have to surmount). It was funny, clever and sweet - a few bits that were almost naff but weren't because they were so touching and beautiful. I laughed and I sobbed, which was embarrassing on the tube. Write more Keith, this is fab! How is your son getting on now? (Sorry if that's too personal). What can parents of kids without autism do when they meet a family with these challenges? I'd like to hope that being non-judgy would help, and that is what I strive for, but it can be hard not to say the wrong thing.

Thank you MumsNet for the copy of this wonderful book. I highly reccomend this heartwarming and truly inspirational stroy. To me, A Boy Made Of Blocks is honest and emotional jorney about the importance of the family.
Since the novel is based partially on autor's personal experienses I would like to ask a question, about the message of the book.
What is the main message you intend to give to others with this story?
Through the book, inexperienced people, gain more insight about autism. My second question will be, should people need new prespective in the way they look at this topic?

Thank you Mumsnet for my copy of this book. I just wish that this had been available 15 years ago when I was working with children and young people with autism. I hope that this will now be widely read as it sets out the challenges faced by those on the spectrum and their friends and family.
My question to Keith is how did the book come about?

Hi Keith, I would also like to ask if you have read many other novels that deal with autism/Asperger's syndrome. Something of an autism canon seems to have developed since the publication of Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" in 2003 - I have also read Graeme Simsion's "The Rosie Project" and "The Rosie Effect", and Kathy Lette and Jodi Picoult have also written novels that feature characters with high-functioning autism, although I haven't read those. (I am sure there are others). Do you think it is helpful that autism appears to have become a popular topic for novelists, i.e. is it likely to raise awareness amongst people who might otherwise know very little about it, or provide comfort to readers who are affected by it?

Thanks to so many people for their comments and questions so far on this thread - it's clear that A Boy Made of Blocks has touched us all this month and we're delighted that Keith is joining us tonight. Welcome to Mumsnet Keith and over to you...

Hi, is this where the live chat is, or should I be somewhere else?

Hello everyone! Thank you for having me here. I'm looking forward to your questions. I saw that there are already some here so I'll just start diving in!

Ah, cross post!

Hello Keith, Congratulations on your book, I have really enjoyed reading it, and did shed a tear or two. I liked your writing style, reminded me a bit of Nick Hornby and similar. Who do you like reading? Would you say any particular authors influenced you or inspired you to write??

@gailforce1

My question to Keith is how did the book come about?

Hello Gailforce1 (excellent name). Just in case anyone doesn't know the story behind the novel, it's actually based on my own experiences. I have two sons, Zac and Albie, and Zac was diagnosed on the autism spectrum in 2012. He was quite short on vocabulary and found it difficult to express himself, and so I decided to try and play Minecraft with him, because he liked technology and I thought he might enjoy it. It was amazing - he really took to it, and loved we loved making things together. He started to learn new words and really came out of himself.

I'm a Guardian journalist so I wrote a story about our experiences and a publisher, Little Brown, saw my article and asked if I'd consider writing a novel based on Zac, autism and Minecraft. So I did!

@SunshineOutdoors

Hi, is this where the live chat is, or should I be somewhere else?

Yes! You're in the right place. Keith will be here answering questions for the next hour.

@SunshineOutdoors

Ah, cross post!

Hello Keith, Congratulations on your book, I have really enjoyed reading it, and did shed a tear or two. I liked your writing style, reminded me a bit of Nick Hornby and similar. Who do you like reading? Would you say any particular authors influenced you or inspired you to write??

Hello SunshineOutdoors! I do like Nick Hornby too, although I didn't read him while I was writing because I was afraid I'd accidentally start to steal his writing style! I really like Margaret Atwood too - she has amazing ideas. Being a bit of a nerd I like cyberpunk authors like William Gibson and Philip K Dick too. When I was writing Boy Made of Blocks I read Jane Eyre which was both amazing and terrifying because it's SOOOOO good and I felt like a complete amateur.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a very easy to read book with a storyline that everyone could relate to. It was interesting to read how dealing with an autistic child had such an impact on family life.

It was interesting to see it from so many perspectives, not just the mother caring for the child, but also the father, and also at times from the perspective of the kid dealing with the issues. It was also interesting to read how other people and other parents reacted to the condition.

The book is written in such a way that real life themes such as how the current education system, lack of support are slowly introduced. Other real life themes such as friendships for both kids and parents are also introduced. Cleverly the author also looks at how autism effects the older generation, through the character of chess player in the pub. How they may not have been diagnosed. Something that I personally never thought about .

I have no real experience of autism but through reading this book you could start to understand the frustration that kids and parents must feel. I would highly recommend reading this book. It will do alot to make people understand more about this condition in a friendly and easy to comprehend manner. Its also a great little story about the value of enjoying family life, and the important things in life .

Hi Keith
Congratulations on the novel - I really enjoyed it & had my eyes & heart opened by the story.
I wondered, based on your experience, what advice you would give those of us whose children are friends with children with autism? It's hard to explain to a child why other children see the world differently

Hi Keith,

Well done on the book; I read it and completely believed the storyline and found myself thinking you were being very brave about how you described some acquaintances in it! Got to the end and read the acknowledgements and had a good laugh to myself.

Why did you decide to write a fiction novel in this style? Genuinely curious as it is so believable as an autobiographical work?

I thought this was such a great book to read. I wonder what your wife/ partner / mum to your kids thinks of you writing so publicly about aspects of your life?

@todormirchev

What is the main message you intend to give to others with this story? Through the book, inexperienced people, gain more insight about autism.

Hey Todormirchev! I guess one of the things I really wanted to do with the book was inform people about autism. One of the hardest things about being the parent of a child on the spectrum is dealing with the judgement of other people - usually when your kid has a meltdown in a cafe or in the playground. You just feel that everyone thinks you're a bad parent. One day, our ex-neighbour (we've moved away now) gave a letter to my wife telling her that we were failing as parents. That was, you know, quite hard.

So I hope maybe people will read this book and see that it's difficult - but it's also totally hilarious and fun.

@Celama

Hi Keith,

Why did you decide to write a fiction novel in this style? Genuinely curious as it is so believable as an autobiographical work?

Hey Celama, really glad you liked it! I think there is something universal about fiction - people read it and think about it in a different way to autobiography. I didn't want people to read BMoB and think what happened in it was only relevant to my family.

Also, while a lot of the autism experiences portrayed in the book are based on our own experiences as a family, everything else is fictional. All the characters are made up - although of course, I'm sure they're subliminally inspired by people I know in some ways. Dan is very much an amalgam of lots of cool people I've worked with!

Great to have you here Keith. I just finished reading your book on the train from work this evening. I loved it. The characters felt authentic and several times I felt very emotional reading some of the simple but powerful observations made by Alex regarding not just Sam, but the other family members. I think the characters will stay in my mind for a long time.
My favourite part was the discussion that Sam had with Dan where they connect over the topic of design, and the notion that words are like shapes. I used this analogy with students in a university teaching session I ran today and they loved it too!
A few questions
Do you plan to write a sequel?
Do you have in your mind an idea of what will happen with Alex and Jody, and also with Emma and Dan?
What have you learned about yourself as a result of writing this book?
Thanks
Arti