Pop Fantastic 

Hi

I have to admit I found your blog after reading about your fantastic hubbys rant about Reilly not getting any party invitations. I have to admit it broke my heart and took me back about 20 years. My son was diagnosed with ADHD when he was very young, his Year 1 teacher described him as a ‘one man band’ in his first school report so you can imagine how he was. He was subsequently also diagnosed with Aspergers later on.

I just wanted to write to say you guys are doing an amazing job. I was lucky in that Andrew, my son, was on the lower/milder end of the Autism spectrum and speech was never a problem, in fact he used to amaze teachers with his conversation at times. It was very difficult in those days getting any help especially with the ADHD but we fought hard and today he is a qualified chef in an Helsinki restaurant. Why am I telling you this I hear you think. Well it’s just to tell you never to stop hoping. It is a long, frustrating and sometimes lonely life with an autistic and ADHD child but it can also be the most rewarding as you have found and written about beautifully.

I would advise you to keep fighting. Join a local support group as the parents there will be going through similar moments. Hold your head high as you know that despite how exhausting, frustrating and difficult it can be you are doing the best you can do for your child. Who, despite what others may think, is your little darling and yes he might be loud, he might scream and stamp his feet and act inappropriately but he doesn’t know how to control that.

Andrew amazes me even now in how deeply he thinks and feels at times. The first present he ever brought me back from a school trip was a fridge magnet. It had a monkey on it and a saying which read ‘I am horizontally parked in a parallel universe’. Even now when I look at it I think ‘Wow’ he was only about 9 at the time.

I live in Belfast but if I can ever help you in any way, be that just being a listening ear or by inviting Reilly to a party, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Keep up the great parenting you are both doing and keep that corkscrew on hand for emergency relaxation.

Best wishes & love to Reilly

Alison

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Hi Christine, let me first apologise for this late response. I only saw this review today after a friend posted it on FB.
My name is Amy Fox, I am the author of the book Pop Fantastic and I must first and foremost say how emotionally connected I have been to little Reilly’s story. Sadness and yet immense relief that your husbands post has gained such attention. I truly connect with you and your family’s feelings, my son Oliver (Pop) who is now 11, while verbal, struggles everyday with the world and how it works. His comprehension is very poor and he prefers to live within the realm of Thomas the Tank and all cartoons that he enjoyed when he was little. He can recite over 90 books from memory but yet can not have a conversation about what he has done that day. He lives within a bubble and very much like your Reilly is luckily oblivious to the way others see him and even interact with him. This however does not make it any easier on the parents. We want our son’s to be included, to be part of something, anything….

Nobody really understands how isolating and how paralysing autism is for the family members. I absolutely salute you and your husband for the step you have taken to educate people of this enormous and life altering condition.

I am encouraged by the increase in autism awareness displayed through the mainstream media these days, but I can’t help but be slightly jaded by seeing autism continually portrayed by those in the high functioning end of the spectrum. There needs to be more awareness of the children who have not become geniuses, or who only suffer from compulsive disorders and social restraints but yet speak so articulately.

Where are the documentaries about typical autistic kids? The ones who eat sand, bang their heads off walls, turn light switches on and off 50 times? And the ones who smear faeces throughout the house, can’t have their hair cut without a monumental meltdown and wont eat because of the smell or the shape of the food they’re eating.

My husband and I decided it was time to write a book where the main character is autistic, there should be one, they are not in the minority anymore!

I am so happy you liked the book, I would love to know if Reilly enjoyed it. We hope to produce a series of six, that’s if this first one takes off (so far not too hopeful).

But let me secondly thank you for that amazing review, I am beyond happy that you liked it and it would be my pleasure to send you 5 more copies for you to donate to your son’s school (Benton Dene).

Keep doing what you’re doing, if for no other reason than it gives mother’s like me peace. Peace knowing we’re not alone. And that in itself makes life that little more liveable.

Love and hugs

Amy x

Amy

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