Customer Reviews

The Same Difference

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Casey and Chelsea, 14 are identical twins. Chelsea has severe autism; is nonverbal; has severe meltdowns; is devoted to routines and a gifted artist. She loved doing detailed drawings of birds.

Casey quotes long reams of facts; has memorized the Guinness Book of World Records; categorizes her geodes; kept her dolls lined up in alphabetical order based on the nationality they represented and knows the lines to many old movies. She prides herself on not having autism like her sister. She is in for a surprise!

Casey had been homeschooled ostensibly to help her parents with her sister. The twins had a home teacher during their early years; I did not like it when the girls' parents did not answer Casey directly when she asked why Chelsea's teacher worked with her as well. At that time Casey did not know she had more in common with Chelsea than an identical genetic base.

At 14, she is enrolled in the district high school and is paired with Scott in the Peer Mentoring Program. Scott is very kind, patient and protective of Casey; he explains Social Codes & Rules as best he can. She takes everything people say literally and when told certain ice breaker comments upon meeting people, she uses them all. She also tries to impress people with her chains of facts.

Scott also helps Casey see that people who call themselves her friends while asking her to do their work for them are just taking advantage of her. He also helps her learn to "empathize" by saying that she might ask how he's doing after he broke his arm. He watches movies with her and turns the sound down and asks her how the characters might feel in given situations.

In time, Casey realizes she has Asperger's, the spectrum partner of autism. She is a wonderfully plausible character that people with Asperger's can relate to; like Chris of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time," people with Asperger's will recognize themselves in Casey. Her demand for order, e.g. insisting that her geodes and dolls be placed in a certain order; her social naivete and bewilderment over people's responses will certainly be recognizable. It is through Scott's loving diligence that Casey learns that her father has Asperger's as well. He is, by his own account "a computer geek;" his special interests include old movies and doing character voices. Like Chelsea, he is bound to following a routine and does not like to deviate from it.

Casey realizes that she shares a place on the spectrum with her father and sister. One part that I just loved was when Casey, forced to endure a playdate as a young child pulled her playmate's hair when the other child wanted to play with her dolls. Casey could not understand the rationale for "talking" for the dolls and wanted them to remain in the order in which she had placed them. Since the playdate was more for the girls' mothers than the girls themselves, I just loved it when Casey asserted herself. Even so, that gave a good example of spectrum behavior.

This is an excellent book about acceptance; tolerance and understanding the confusion that people on the a/A spectrum contend with on a routine basis. What makes this book all the more interesting is that it is about identical twins, who share an identical genetic makeup. Scott even pointed out that in many cases involving identical twins and autism, only one twin has the condition. All in all, an outstanding work.

I loved this book! The characters are so involved, they grow continuously throughout it. I loved the way Casey had to adapt as she went through the book in order to survive everyday life. All in all, a very good read.

this book is great. i loved it and loved the chacters in too bad it was so short. i am hoping for a sqeul

This lovely, poignant book is the first book I've ever read that describes Asperger's, a form of autism, from the point of view of a person who suffers from it. Although fiction, the book reads like nonfiction. Casey is 14 and has a twin sister diagnosed as autistic and unable to function in a school setting. The story takes a twist when Casey learns that she is not exactly the "normal" sister she thought herself to be. For example, Casey is completely baffled when, sent to a public school, discovers that not only do other students avoid her, they make fun of her and even call her names.
Her peer buddy, Scott, tries to explain the nuances and gestures of people and attempts to comfort Casey with one of the most touching lines in the book, "'You are a little different, Casey, and that makes people feel uncomfortable.'" When Scott breaks his arm, Casey can only see how this inconveniences her when he misses school. Through a skillfully drawn series of events, Casey learns that one makes friends through being a friend.
What makes this book such a compelling read is that the reader sees the world through Casey's eyes. We see how she needs rituals such as counting the number of rocks in her collection over and over again, as a means of coping with her anxiety.
Because Asperger's Syndrome can afflict children who are highly intelligent but lack "street smarts," Casey is a sitting duck for students who use her brains to further their grades under the guise of friendship. Casey, with Scott's help, eventually learns not to let others use her, and in a unique plot twist, she explains to her fellow students how she and her sister are "different." She ends her presentation with, "'. . . different isn't always worse. Sometimes it's just different.'"
As a former teacher, I found this book to be an invaluable resource as well as one terrific read. I couldn't put it down. I look forward to more of such sensitive, compassionate, and compelling books for young people by Deborah Lynn Jacobs.