If it helps, high and low functioning are terms that are 100% arbitrary and no longer accepted in the autism research community. A lot of people don't know the language has evolved, similarly to many people not knowing Asberger's is no longer a diagnosis- it's just autism, which is a broad spectrum. And yeah, it does cone off that way with Dirk. When people say low functioning autism they almost always mean someone who is autistic and has a learning disability- theyre separate though comorbid things.

As an analogy: imagine a brilliant poet whose native language is…let’s say Portuguese. This poet is proud of their language and culture. Abroad, people only refer to this poet as “bad at speaking English.” It’s the same principle. Deaf culture is rich and beautiful, and the various sign languages of the world are part of our culture. Many (but not all!) Deaf people identify with our culture, rather than our inability to hear.

She's just special

Buddy. What about the disability representation. Bud. Do you think the way Donnie was written was acceptable

@Crowcaller You're complaining a lot in your video how Jeremy is missing the point of abelism. Listening to you I think to myself that you've had your ethics classes and read peoples "How to not be abelist" papers or articles and talked a lot with friends, classmates and on social media how it should be done and now here you are ripping apart a childrens book where disabled people are the heroes on the basis of your formed opinion. That opinion being that there's a clear, clean line on what's harmful to disabled people. That Donnie is a harmful stereotype that, when read by an impressionable youth, will form a negative opinion on how they see autistic people. IMO that's not true and also missing the point. The point being that this book would like to show young people that everybody can be a hero, that you should not judge people by their health, physical and mental. I found myself agreeing with you on a few points (the teacher telling Phillipp to "get over it" for example) but others seem just, as said before, petty. Sure, it would be great if the town would come to the conclusion themselves that the ban on disabled people in the super sim is wrong, or Henry's argument could've swayed them, but that would make for pretty boring writing and also, that's just not how the world is. Again, this is a childrens book about inclusivity with some fun ideas and, IMO, good twists, and on that level I think it succeeds. I'm not a fan of your stance towards abelism, it's just too textbook for me.

I'm not speaking on it from a distant perspective. I'm speaking as a disabled person. I spoke about it a lot with other disabled friends who helped further inform my thoughts (like my intermittent wheelchair using friend pointed out a lot of stuff that was personally harmful to her that I missed). And her doing that is kind of the point. This stuff is harmful, especially to disabled kids... according to people who used to be disabled kids. This book doesn't deliver the bare minimum of inspring kids- it tells them the best way to be a hero is to stop being disabled and accept a lesser place in society. This is a message we get enough from society... it's not a good thing to put in a book you sell to tweens. (The lead is 12, the book series is Young Adult. Not quite "for kids"- he's like 16 book 2 and 18 book 3!) Basically... I know it doesn't bother you, but if you look at the other comments you will see a ton of people it does hurt. We shouldn't accept a "well he tried!" When he didn't. Like. Don't you think disabled people deserve better than bare minimum. The lack of research really does it for me. Donnie is beyondddd offensive and... he's not autistic lol. He's meant to have Down syndrome, but he is instead an incredibly inaccurate portrayal of a condition which is already greatly misunderstood! It isn't hard to Google "what is down syndrome" before writing it into your book... but it's hard to believe Jeremy did.

​ @Crowcaller Ok, just watched your video again (this time not just while doing something else like yesterday) and I get where you coming from, I do. I did not remember that it was in writing that Donnie had down (and missed it in your video), and I agree that it's a pretty poor depiction. You're absolutely right in calling out Jeremy for his lack of research and lack of female characters (however, I think "mysogenistic" is too strong word for that). I work in health care and when it comes to depiction of disabled people in media I'll always try to be aware (again, its been a while since I read the book and I did not remember Donnie was actually diagnosed as down) and this book just didn't hit any red flags for me. I think Jeremy did a good enough job describing how Philip's world works and since it's written from his perspective, that of a 12 year old, I accepted his way of thinking without much deeper thoughts. I think my main gripe with your review is that you seem so preoccupied with the abelism stuff that you don't really take time to talk about the things I enjoyed about the book and that got on my nerve. You have not said a single positive thing about it and thats not a review in my book. You've given it 1/5 stars on goodreads (found your review by chance ;) ) and I disagree with you on that. Its 3/5 for me. For me, I think the book is more of a coming of age story then truly a book about fighting abelism. Will watch some more of your videos now, you seem to do a lot of YA stuff and thats my guilty pleasure (currently reading "The Hunger Games" for like the 50'th time ;) ). One last feedback, maybe hook up your monitor, its a little distracting if you look down all the time.

I've been corrected heavily because I got ot wrong book one. I read it as iss-lah, grim makes ref to its pronunciation and that fit, but it is evidently Ice-lah, or eyes-lah. I admit I have never listened to Alex Aster say it herself to be sure. She's of Colombian descent so the Spanish names are I guess a tribute to that. But as everyone points out including plenty of Spanish speakers... it's dumb. The names are silly and literal and don't quite line up (like. Not everyone has one so they stick out so much. It feels childish)

I've always heard face feeling isn't actually something commonly done by blind people, but the fact he is surprised his father is TALL is ridiculous. He would know that from hugging him, holding his hand, hearing his voice... glasses too are something if you don't feel, are very likely to hear mentioned. Jeremy just didn't think about this... at all