A 32-page picture book that describes the daily life of an autistic child in simple, appealing language. It's written for siblings and classmates of children with autism. After sparking interest in Ticino schools, we decided to introduce the book to Italian readers. We asked two children to read it and share their thoughts.
What Clemente thinks (age 10)
This story is set on a farm with 32 hens. The owner's name is Everardo, and he thought all his hens were the same. All that mattered to him was that they laid eggs.
Then a boy named Giovanni is born—but he's different from other children. He does strange things. For example, he picks up feathers from the floor, rushes at the hens, and sticks the feathers in their rear ends. Or there's the time when his father Everardo asks Giovanni to go into the garden and draw the pig. When Everardo comes back out, the pig is covered in black dots. Giovanni had taken the request literally and drawn on the pig itself instead of making a picture of it on paper, the way his father meant.
As Giovanni grows older, he goes with his father to the market to sell eggs. He remembers perfectly which hen laid each egg they're about to sell. That's how Giovanni becomes known as "The Market King."
The story teaches us that autistic children need a lot of patience, because you have to understand how they think. They take everything you say literally.
What Samuele thinks (age 10)
This book is about an autistic boy named Giovanni who lives on a farm. The henhouse is his favorite part of the property. He spends hours admiring it and collecting eggs. On market day, Giovanni climbs onto the tractor and goes with his dad to sell their eggs. If a friend happens to visit the farm, Giovanni takes him by the hand and—you guessed it—shows him the hens. He tells him their names and explains how to collect the eggs.
Autistic people understand things in a concrete, literal way. For instance, when Everardo asks Giovanni to wash his feet, Giovanni does it. Then he puts on his sweaty socks and dirty boots again.
Giovanni wouldn't trade the president of the country for an ordinary person, because appearances don't matter to him.
The book is worth reading not just because it works for children, but because it's funny too. There's a part where the hens wonder what human eggs look like. Most importantly, the story helps you understand what autistic people are really like, the difference between disability and illness, and so much more.