Corduroy learns a quadratic equation? A mom can hope.

Parts I and II of this series of posts here and here.

* * *

I love Cars. Love it. I own the DVD and several Cars-branded toys. I agree with its message.

However, I wonder if that particular message - what matters most is friends - is overly pervasive in children's stories. Don't get me wrong: I want to teach my children to value friendships. But I would also like to impart a message of acceptance. I would appreciate a diversity of messages in my children's stories. Where are the stories that teach children it's okay if you struggle with friendships?

Instead, the autism-friendly children's books are mostly about awareness and tolerance, or how to be a friend. Which isn't for nothing.

But I worry that the emphasis on autism as a disability and remediation of social impairment will, as this article puts it, "...imbue them [autistic children] with a sense that they're unacceptably weird."

I hope to spare my children this fate, which I think is unnecessary and avoidable. Maybe I'll write and publish (on this blog) my own children's stories.