Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions, 2022; A Thorn in My Pocket: Temple Grandin’s Mother Tells the Family Story, 2004

A quarter century after her memoir, Thinking in Pictures, changed how the world understood autism, Temple Grandin—“an anthropologist on Mars,” as Oliver Sacks dubbed her—transforms our awareness of the different ways our brains are wired.  In Visual Thinking, Temple proposes new approaches to educating, parenting, employing, and collaborating with visual thinkers.  

In A Thorn in My Pocket, Eustacia tells the story of raising her autistic daughter, Temple, in the conservative world of the fifties, a time when autistic children were routinely diagnosed as “infant schizophrenics” and banished to institutions.  She tells of her fight to keep Temple in the mainstream of family, community, and school life, how Temple responded and went on to succeed.  

Reviewed by Carol Campbell, PhD

Vice President for Education

Southwestern Union Conference

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