To start,

There is a total lack of representation for autism in the children picture book world!

As a special education teacher, I have read thousands of children's books, and I have noticed a lack of diversity and representation for autism. I have found very few books out there, and I have never been able to buy any of them in the big-box stores like Big W, Target or Kmart. When you search through their books, there is nothing about autism or any books with autistic characters. Even if you search on their website for "autism", nothing comes up.

As a special education teacher, I am upset by this lack of diversity and representation in the book world. 

The second part,

Most of the books I found related to autism I had to purchase online (from Amazon). The stories were written in the third person as a one-off book about how autistic people are just "different". Not really the representation I was hoping for...

The lack of representation upset me, so I decided to write my own series of books!

I have written and published a series of three books about a young boy with Autism. The books are written in the first person, and each book features one of 'Albi's' adventures with autism. [The hope is to have a series of ten!]

I decided to then contact the "big-box" stores in hopes of adding my series to their shelves. I mentioned their lack of representation and told them they needed to change this! I said, even if they didn't want my books, they needed some representation on their shelves. 

I got the usual automated response, "you will hear back in 1-3 days". Well, 1-7 days went by, and guess who didn't get a reply?

So, a month later, I tried again, no reply.

I tried sending them screenshots of their websites showing 0 search results for "autism". I even spoke to them about how 1 in 150 Australians have autism... still, nothing.

 

So, now I need your help!

Please help me raise awareness and get more books about autism on the shelves of our big retail stores. Children need to see representation when they look through the shelves of their local Big W or Kmart.