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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Timesbestselling author Ron Suskind’s new book, Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes and Autism, to be published April 1, 2014, has already prompted intense interest from the autism research community and coverage in the New York Times. And with the Centers for Disease Control poised to release a startling new report on the incidence of autism in America, Life, Animated will be at the center of conversations about meaningful treatment, education, and healing during National Autism Awareness Month in April.
Just shy of his third birthday, Suskind’s lively, chatty son Owen became mute. He didn’t sleep or eat, and cried inconsolably. His only solace: the Disney animated movies he loved before autism struck. The boy’s ability to understand speech had vanished, so he memorized the movies, dozens of them, based on sound, alone. Yet he remained trapped inside himself, isolated, unable to communicate and make himself understood.
In a startling breakthrough, Suskind discovered he could engage his child if he “became” a character. When, in a flash of insight, he spoke to six-year-old Owen with a hand puppet as Iago, the parrot from “Aladdin,” Owen responded in full, articulate sentences. He had relearned language by watching movies. His affinity and passion for the animated movie sidekicks was the key to unlock the door into his shut-off world.
Suskind, his wife, Cornelia, and their son Walt began to communicate with their lost son and brother in movie dialogue. As animated characters, they could touch this “left-behind” boy, help him develop his drawing skills in his interest area — animation, and most importantly, begin to welcome him back into the world of expressing love, sharing feelings, and interacting with family and friends.
Life, Animated is the story of a family’s resilience when their world is turned upside-down. It’s about perseverance and hope. A child disappeared into confusion, frustration and silence. Then, he and his family began to dig for diamonds, working year by year, trial by trial, on a most improbable project: to find a way to connect again, by following the lead of the child — his passions and interests.
Inspiring, graceful, and fascinating, Life, Animated is destined to become a classic on the order of Oliver Sacks’ Awakenings. Taking The Reason I Jump a step further, it reveals a way into the heart and mind of an autistic child. It is essential reading for parents and anyone who has ever loved another, showing that insights can come from the most improbable places and a child can give you the key to a self that had seemed lost and beyond reach.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ron Suskind is the author of four New York Times bestsellers and the critically acclaimed, A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League. His other books include, Confidence Men, The Way of the World, The One Percent Doctrine and The Price of Loyalty. He was the senior national affairs writer for The Wall Street Journal,where he won the Pulitzer Prize, and is currently the Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Center for Ethics. He lives in Cambridge, Mass., with his wife, Cornelia Kennedy.