John Elder Robison
The slyly funny, sweetly moving memoir of an unconventional dadâ€™s relationship with his equally offbeat sonâ€”complete with fast cars, tall tales, homemade explosives, and a whole lot of fun and trouble , Â , Misfit, truant, delinquent. John Robison was never a model child, and he wasnâ€™t a model dad either. Diagnosed with Aspergerâ€™s syndrome at the age of forty, he approached fatherhood as a series of logic puzzles and practical jokes. When his son, Cubby, asked, â€œWhere did I come from?â€ John said heâ€™d bought him at the Kid Store and that the salesman had cheated him by promising Cubby would â€œdo all chores.â€ He read electrical engineering manuals to Cubby at bedtime. He told Cubby that wizards turned children into stone when they misbehaved., Still, John got the basics right. He made sure Cubby never drank diesel fuel at the automobile repair shop he owns. And he gave him a life of adventure: By the time Cubby was ten, heâ€™d steered a Coast Guard cutter, driven a freight locomotive, and run an antique Rolls Royce into a fence.,The one thing John couldnâ€™t figure out was what to do when school authorities decided that Cubby was dumb and stubbornâ€”the very same thing ,he, had been told as a child. Did Cubby have Aspergerâ€™s too? The answer was unclear. One thing ,was, clear, though: By the time he turned seventeen, Cubby had become a brilliant chemistâ€”smart enough to make military-grade explosives and bring state and federal agents calling. Afterward, with Cubby facing up to sixty years in prison, both father and son were forced to take stock of their lives, finally coming to terms with being â€œon the spectrumâ€ as both a challenge and a unique gift. ,By turns tender, suspenseful, and hilarious, this is more than just the story of raising Cubby. Itâ€™s the story of a father and son who grow up together. ,Praise for John Robison's first book, ,Look Me In the Eye,:,"Lean, powerful in its descriptive accuracy and engaging in its understated humor...Emotionally gripping." --,Chicago Tribune,"A fantastic life story told with grace, humor, and a bracing lack of sentimentality." --,Entertainment Weekly,"Endearing...Robison is a natural storyteller." --,Boston Globe
Nonfiction,Autobiography,Memoir,Parenting,Biography,Psychology,Biography Memoir,Health,Aspergers,Audiobook,Humor,Biography,Autobiography
Raising Cubby: A Father and Son's Adventures with Asperger's, Trains, Tractors, and High Explosives