Today is World Autism Awareness Day. Running annually on the 2nd of April for the past 13 years, autism-friendly events and educational activities have been taking place to increase understanding and acceptance of people with autism and help foster a more inclusive world.

Through books and reading, children can gain an understanding of those who have different experiences to them. There are a wide range of books for children and young adults that include a character who is on the autistic spectrum. Booktrust have published a booklist of these books on their website.

The Reading Agency’s “Reading Well” programme recommends expert endorsed books about mental health and has a selection of books which are good for for exploring Autism and Asperger’s syndrome with children.

 

International Children’s Book Day

Today is also International Children’s Book Day, which is sponsored this year by IBBY Slovenia. A message, written by renowed Slovenian author Peter Svetina and translated by Jernej Županičhas, has been published by IBBY to celebrate the day and raise awareness about the importance of reading.

Peter Svetina’s children’s books have been translated into many languages including English, German, Spanish, Korean, Polish, Latvian, Estonian, and Lithuanian. His debut picture book was an animal fairy tale called The Walrus who Didn’t Want to Cut his Nails.

Timbuktu features unusual characters like a path that feels cold, a chocolate with two arms, a car with a moustache and a whale who has settled in a puddle, all of which will go down very well with children.

The Ear of the World  is a collection of 5 magical and humorous fairy tales and The Ripening of the Porcupines shows us how porcupines ask just as many questions as children.  What sort of questions? Well, why can’t you drive on foot? How can you train your own shadow? And why are there arrows everywhere you look? You get the idea…

And if you would like to read more about Peter Svetaina, take a look here.