Just finished reading this and would like to recommend it for anyone interested in learning about autism. I loved it mainly because it described my life to a tee. DS1 is very similar to Sam - same tics and same obsessions even,- even today he was doing a Sam- yelping in an echoey national trust summerhouse- but he has a bit of George thrown in as well- perfect pitch and ridiculous memory.
I think part of the reason it is such a good book for people who have no experience of autism is that she uses her third NT child Jake as a comparison for George and Sam. So it really explains clearly how different NT and autistic children are. And why you cannot treat the 2 in the same way.
Would recommend it for any teachers with autis in their class. It's interesting reading- and therefore easy going but really gets across a lot of the issues, and approaches and gives a lot of information on why autistic children behave so completely off the planet. So its easy to learn a lot without being bored stiff iyswim.
Also has a very good section at the end on the sort of help a family with an autistic child would be very grateful for. And little hints on what not to say