Annabel Adewunmi, a student at Howard S. Billings School in Châteauguay, has written a children’s book about autism entitled Our Brother Robin. Autistic herself, the 16-year-old is touring elementary schools in the New Frontiers School Board to read the story to children.
English revision by Amanda Bennett
The book tells the story of a 5-year-old autistic robot who faces challenges because of his differences. The story is written from the perspective of his older brother, who talks about what their family does to help him. For example, the story explains that the main character has trouble with loud places, so he wears noise-cancelling headphones. The young robot also has stimming tics, like moving his arms up and down when he’s happy.
Throughout the story, the older brother emphasizes the main character’s qualities. He explains that his younger brother is very artistic and loves to draw. The secondary four writer says her goal is to promote the acceptance of autistic people. « He may be autistic, but he can still do a lot of great things, » she says about her character.
Annabel wrote and illustrated the 55-page book in January, originally in English, but a French version is also available. Both are sold on Amazon for $15. More than 150 copies of the original version have been sold since its release at the end of March. The French translation has been available for distribution since Friday.
« Being a writer is fun because I can share my ideas with a lot of people around me and I can use my imagination as I want, » she said during a presentation to second-graders at Mary Gardner School.
An interactive presentation
The teenager took the time to interact with the children throughout the reading, asking them questions. During her presentation on Thursday, April 20th, the students listened attentively and many complimented the writer afterwards.
In the book, the character Robin receives a bottle containing glitter and water and does breathing exercises to regulate his emotions. Annabel had brought bottles and repeated the exercise in class with the students. She gave them to the children at the end of her presentation. She had also prepared colouring pages for the children, given that she and her character love colours.
This is just the beginning
Annabel previously wrote two other unpublished books on other topics. She hopes to publish a second book in the near future. This book will talk about the different movements young children can do like jumping, dancing, and running.
« In the future I hope to reach people who enjoy the way I write », she said.
