About the Author and Illustrator

This book is a collection of short stories which have been written and illustrated by Andrew Read-Percival. At the age of 3½ Andrew was diagnosed with Autism. At that time Andrew spoke very few words and struggled to comprehend and learn the basic skills that children his age seemed naturally to pick up. Simple tasks such as holding his bottle, following basic instructions and  communicating his needs proved extremely challenging for him and were only eventually achieved through continual perseverance and repetition. By the time Andrew started school aged 5, he was assessed as being 18 months behind his peers and he required continual one-on-one classroom support in order to attend school.

Over the past 2½ years, with the support, direction and patience of Barbara at school and Mum and Dad at home, Andrew has achieved monumental growth and is now being assessed as being 18 month ahead in his reading and writing! This is despite the challenges that learning difficulties that Autism will always present for him.

This collection of stories is intended as a celebration, a way of sharing what is possible and of giving you an insight into the creativity and humour that make Andrew who is is. We make no apology for any grammatically incorrect aspects; this is a 7 year old Autistic child’s work, pure and unaltered.

Andrew loves movies and wants to work in the movie industry when he’s older.  You’ll possibly recognise in some of his stories, influences such as Spike Milligan’s Bad Jelly the Witch, Dr Suess, King Kong and Madagascar. In other’s we have no idea what inspiration he was drawing from. Suffice to say we hope you enjoy these stories as we have.

All proceeds from this book are being donated to support Autism in New Zealand, if even one family gets to benefit, it’s been worthwhile.

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