National Autism Awareness Day: My Top 3 Books With Autistic Main Characters

Every year, April 2nd is national Autism Awareness Day. To mark the event, these are my top 3 books with autistic main characters!

1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the narrator and detective Christopher Boone is autistic. He likes maths and cars, and hates the colours yellow and brown. When a neighbour’s dog is killed, Christopher sets out to solve the mystery of who did it- while also discovering other things about his past. I thought the book was quite easy to read, and Christopher was a really interesting character to read about.

2. The Infinite by Patience Agbabi

Children born on the 29th of February (Leaplings) are extremely rare; rarer still are Leaplings with The Gift. The Gift is the ability to leap through time, and Elle has never before used it- until on her 12th birthday, when she goes on a school trip to 2048, 28 years in the future. But Elle has larger concerns than a school trip- she has received a mysterious warning from the future, and she can’t trust everyone at the Time Squad Centre. The book was really gripping, and a lot of the chapters ended on cliffhangers, making you want to read on! I also thought it was really that many of the characters had autism or ADHD, but it was incidental, not overplayed.

3. A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll

When Addie learns about the witch trials which happened in her hometown  hundreds of years ago, she knows there is more the the story and wants justice for the innocent women branded as witches. As Addie works to get a memorial for the witches, can she change the way people see her? 

Do you know any other books which have autistic protagonists? Let me know in the comments!