Fans pick 100 books like Nadia Revisited

By Lorna Selfe,

Here are 100 books that Nadia Revisited fans have personally recommended if you like Nadia Revisited. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Children's Drawings (Le Dessin Enfantin)

Ellen Winner Author Of How Art Works: A Psychological Exploration

From my list on the value of childrenā€™s art.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve had a life-long love affair with the arts. I intended to become an artist, but ultimately became a psychologist researching psychological aspects of the arts. My first book, Invented Worlds, examined the key questions and findings in the psychology of the arts. In Gifted Children: Myths and Realities, I wrote about gifted child artists. My Arts & Mind Lab at Boston College investigated artistic development in typical and gifted children, habits of mind conferred by arts education, and how we respond to works of art. The walls of my home are covered with framed paintings by young children, often side by side paintings by professional artists.

Ellen's book list on the value of childrenā€™s art

Ellen Winner Why did Ellen love this book?

This book, originally published in French in 1927 (and now at long last translated into English by psychologist Alan Costall), is the earliest systematic analysis of the odd, nonrealistic features of childrenā€™s drawings, and the first to argue against those who considered these oddities as defects to be overcome. Instead, childrenā€™s drawings at different stages are shown to have their own logic and intelligence. Luquet opposed any kind of intervention or correction by adults, which he felt might destroy childrenā€™s love of drawing. He took childrenā€™s drawings seriously, never dismissing them in terms of what they lacked. This highly readable book, with its wonderful illustrations revealing the logic of childrenā€™s drawings, has had an enormous influence on how psychologists understand child art.    

By Georges-Henri Luquet, Alan Costall (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Children's Drawings (Le Dessin Enfantin) as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This title looks at children's drawings in light of modern psychology, focusing on the two main theories - visual realism and intellectual realism - whilst examining the work of Georges-Henri Luquet and arguing that his work goes beyond both theories.


Book cover of Artful Scribbles: The Significance of Children's Drawings

Ellen Winner Author Of How Art Works: A Psychological Exploration

From my list on the value of childrenā€™s art.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve had a life-long love affair with the arts. I intended to become an artist, but ultimately became a psychologist researching psychological aspects of the arts. My first book, Invented Worlds, examined the key questions and findings in the psychology of the arts. In Gifted Children: Myths and Realities, I wrote about gifted child artists. My Arts & Mind Lab at Boston College investigated artistic development in typical and gifted children, habits of mind conferred by arts education, and how we respond to works of art. The walls of my home are covered with framed paintings by young children, often side by side paintings by professional artists.

Ellen's book list on the value of childrenā€™s art

Ellen Winner Why did Ellen love this book?

Most studies of child art describe development towards realism. Artful Scribbles is one of the first accounts to focus on the expressiveness and aesthetics of child art. Developmental psychologist Howard Gardner discusses in depth the puzzle of why the flowering of childrenā€™s art (as valued in the West in the last century) does not last. While drawings of 8- or 9-year-olds are more realistic and ā€œaccurateā€ than those of preschoolers, they seem to have lost the exploratory freshness of the art of younger children. This is one of the earliest studies of childrenā€™s art to take seriously the idea of the child as an artist and to consider the relationship between child art, modern art, and the art of adolescents and of mature artists.  

By Howard Gardner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Artful Scribbles as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Psychologists have long understood that the art works of children relate to their intellectual and emotional development but this is the first book to describe the developmental process of drawing. Gardner explores the vital links between childrens art and their emotional, social, and cognitive development.


Book cover of The Innocent Eye

Ellen Winner Author Of How Art Works: A Psychological Exploration

From my list on the value of childrenā€™s art.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve had a life-long love affair with the arts. I intended to become an artist, but ultimately became a psychologist researching psychological aspects of the arts. My first book, Invented Worlds, examined the key questions and findings in the psychology of the arts. In Gifted Children: Myths and Realities, I wrote about gifted child artists. My Arts & Mind Lab at Boston College investigated artistic development in typical and gifted children, habits of mind conferred by arts education, and how we respond to works of art. The walls of my home are covered with framed paintings by young children, often side by side paintings by professional artists.

Ellen's book list on the value of childrenā€™s art

Ellen Winner Why did Ellen love this book?

This book by art historian Jonathan Fineberg will open your eyes to the fundamental connections between young childrenā€™s art and the art of famous 20th century modern artists like Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Joan MirĆ³, Pablo Picasso, and others. You might be surprised to learn that many of these artists collected childrenā€™s drawings and were profoundly influenced by child art. This book will help you understand the images that inspired these modern masters. It will change how you look at both modern art and child art,  and you will come away with a greater appreciation of both.

By Jonathan Fineberg,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Innocent Eye as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"When I was the age of these children I could draw like Raphael. It took me many years to learn how to draw like these children."--Pablo Picasso, upon viewing an exhibition of children's drawings, as quoted by Sir Herbert Read in 1945 The idea that modern art looks like something a child can do is a long-standing cliche. For some modernists, however, the connection between their work and children's art was direct and explicit. This groundbreaking and heretical book, centered on such modern masters as Klee, Kandinsky, Picasso, and Miro, presents for the first time material from the collections ofā€¦


Book cover of Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye

Ellen Winner Author Of How Art Works: A Psychological Exploration

From my list on the value of childrenā€™s art.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve had a life-long love affair with the arts. I intended to become an artist, but ultimately became a psychologist researching psychological aspects of the arts. My first book, Invented Worlds, examined the key questions and findings in the psychology of the arts. In Gifted Children: Myths and Realities, I wrote about gifted child artists. My Arts & Mind Lab at Boston College investigated artistic development in typical and gifted children, habits of mind conferred by arts education, and how we respond to works of art. The walls of my home are covered with framed paintings by young children, often side by side paintings by professional artists.

Ellen's book list on the value of childrenā€™s art

Ellen Winner Why did Ellen love this book?

This is a classic book by German-born psychologist Rudolf Arnheim, in which he lays out the principles underlying our perception and understanding of works of visual art.  One of the major principles discussed is the human tendency to see the simplest form possible in any visual array. This ā€˜simplicity principleā€™ is also used to explain the intelligence and inventiveness of childrenā€™s art. In a brilliant chapter called Growth, Arnheim shows us that children are not striving towards realism; rather they are trying to create the simplest possible recognizable structural equivalent for the object they are representing.  The inventiveness with which children reduce complex forms to simple structural equivalents requires far more intelligence than mindless copying.  

By Rudolf Arnheim,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Art and Visual Perception as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Since its publication fifty years ago, this work has established itself as a classic. It casts the visual process in psychological terms and describes the creative way one's eye organizes visual material according to specific psychological premises. In 1974 this book was revised and expanded, and since then it has continued to burnish Rudolf Arnheim's reputation as a groundbreaking theoretician in the fields of art and psychology.


Book cover of Fifty-Four Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers

Sally J. Pla Author Of The Someday Birds

From my list on neurodiversity and autism representation.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up undiagnosed autistic. I got excellent grades and never caused much trouble, so no one could tell what was going on inside. But sensory overload and confusion over social dynamics kept me in a bewildering muddle. Books and stories are what helped me through! But there were no stories featuring neurodivergent kids like me, so, as an adult, I resolved to write some. I want to bust stigmas and write honest, fun, heartfelt stories for kids who might be going through their own ā€˜bewildering muddles.ā€™ Now, I'm an award-winning author of several children's novels and a picture book. I'm also co-founder/editor of A Novel Mind, a web resource on mental health and neurodiversity in children's literature.

Sally's book list on neurodiversity and autism representation

Sally J. Pla Why did Sally love this book?

Young Gwendolyn Rogers struggles in middle school and with friends. Sheā€™s impulsive and makes poor decisions ā€“ and longs for a clear diagnosis of ADHD. Author Caela Carter, who has ADHD herself, lets us slip inside her character in such a fascinating way. We see how much Gwendolyn longs to get things right, how much she cares about her family and friends, even though she makes mistakes and does things to annoy them.

By Caela Carter,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Fifty-Four Things Wrong with Gwendolyn Rogers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 9, 10, 11, and 12.

What is this book about?

From the critically acclaimed author of the ALA Notable and Charlotte Huck Honor Book Forever, or a Long, Long Time comes a moving own-voices story that shines a light on how one girlā€™s learning differences are neither right nor wrongā€¦just perfectly individual. For fans of Alyson Gerber, Cammie McGovern, and Kathryn Erskine.

No one can figure out what Gwendolyn Rogersā€™s problem isā€”not her mom, or her teachers, or any of the many therapists sheā€™s seen. But Gwendolyn knows she doesnā€™t have just one thing wrong with her: she has fifty-four.

At least, according to a confidential school report (that sheā€¦


Book cover of The Pattern Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention

Suzanne Goh, MD Author Of Magnificent Minds: The New Whole-Child Approach to Autism

From my list on autism: strengths-based, neurodivergent.

Why am I passionate about this?

My journey began as a high school camp counselor at the Ability Center of Greater Toledo in Ohio. As I worked with children who had neurodevelopmental differences and collaborated with a co-counselor who had cerebral palsy, I saw how people with differences were marginalized and devalued despite being insightful, empathetic, passionate, funny, and talented. My appreciation for their strengths and perspectives shaped my approach as a pediatric neurologist, BCBA, neuroscientist, researcher, and founder of Cortica, which is focused on a whole-child, neurodivergent-affirming approach to care for autism and other neurodevelopmental differences. Reading is an important way for me to stay connected to the strengths-based lens I began cultivating in my teens.

Suzanne's book list on autism: strengths-based, neurodivergent

Suzanne Goh, MD Why did Suzanne love this book?

As a clinician and researcher, Iā€™ve come to appreciate neurodivergent peopleā€™s boundless capacity for innovation and creativity. This book by Simon Baron-Cohen argues that these strengths that Iā€™ve observed over the everyday course of my work have helped to advance humanityā€™s progress for tens of thousands of years.

Autistic people, Baron-Cohen argues, have a distinct ability to identify and manipulate ā€œif-thenā€ patterns, leading to advancements in everything from agricultural and hunting practices to musical instruments and modern digital technology. I share his belief that we must do more to nurture autistic peopleā€™s innate abilities, recognize their talents, and advocate for an inclusive world that allows them to share their gifts far and wide.

By Simon Baron-Cohen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Pattern Seekers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A groundbreaking argument about the link between autism and ingenuity.
Why can humans alone invent? In The Pattern Seekers, Cambridge University psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen makes a case that autism is as crucial to our creative and cultural history as the mastery of fire. Indeed, Baron-Cohen argues that autistic people have played a key role in human progress for seventy thousand years, from the first tools to the digital revolution.
How? Because the same genes that cause autism enable the pattern seeking that is essential to our species's inventiveness. However, these abilities exact a great cost on autistic people, including socialā€¦


Book cover of Ellen Outside the Lines

Calyssa Erb Author Of Maya Plays the Part

From my list on childrenā€™s books with neurodivergent protagonists.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I was a young child, I lived in stories. However, as I got older, I lost my connection to writing and imagining. It was through a late-identified diagnosis of autism that I was able to reconnect with my creativity. Now, through my work as a childrenā€™s publishing specialist and volunteer at childrenā€™s book festivals, I am a champion of kids being able to see themselves in the stories that are published and promoted. I believe that young readers can develop a love of reading and a kindness for others through books that show the diversity of humanity.

Calyssa's book list on childrenā€™s books with neurodivergent protagonists

Calyssa Erb Why did Calyssa love this book?

Ellen Outside the Lines is the book I wish I had when I was a young person. Ellen is autistic and A.J. Sass writes her experience with authenticity and compassion.

I was completely drawn into the ups and downs that Ellen faced during the school trip: from the change in routine to friendship drama and questions of identity. I didnā€™t want the book or the adventure to end! 

By A. J. Sass,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ellen Outside the Lines as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

Winner of a Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor!

Thirteen-year-old Ellen Katz feels most comfortable when her life is well planned out and people fit neatly into her predefined categories. She attends temple with Abba and Mom every Friday and Saturday. Ellen only gets crushes on girls, never boys, and she knows she can always rely on her best-and-only friend, Laurel, to help navigate social situations at their private Georgia middle school. Laurel has always made Ellen feel like being autistic is no big deal. But lately, Laurel has started making more friends, and cancelling more weekend plans with Ellen thanā€¦


Book cover of Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior

Warren Gill Author Of Princess of Horses

From my list on featuring animals for readers who are love animals.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been passionate about animals all my life. I was raised on and currently help operate the family farm near Petersburg, Tennessee. I have a doctorate in animal science and joined Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) as a Professor of Animal Science and Department Chair on August 1, 2007, after retiring from a 25-year career with the Extension Service (University of Tennessee and University of Kentucky). I enjoy participating in community activities such as the Petersburg Community Cultural Coalition, Petersburg Lionā€™s Club, and serving as President of the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture Retireeā€™s Association. I have written two books, Cane Creek Days and Princess of Horses.

Warren's book list on featuring animals for readers who are love animals

Warren Gill Why did Warren love this book?

Dr. Grandinā€™s personal struggle with autism and her love of animals have combined to revolutionize our current understanding of animal behavior and human interactions with our animal partners.

Her body of work is not only impressive but has informed both my career as an animal scientist and my fiction. This book is exemplary of her profound impact on people who love animals.

By Temple Grandin, Catherine Johnson,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Animals in Translation as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

ā€œInspiringā€¦Crammed with facts and anecdotes about Temple Grandinā€™s favorite subject: the senses, brains, emotions, and amazing talents of animals.ā€ā€”New York Times Book Review

A groundbreaking look at the emotional lives of animals, from beloved animal scientist Temple Grandin.

Why would a cow lick a tractor? Why are collies getting dumber? Why do dolphins sometimes kill for fun? How can a parrot learn to spell? How did wolves teach man to evolve? Temple Grandin draws upon a long, distinguished career as an animal scientist and her own experiences with autism to deliver an extraordinary message about how animalsā€¦


Book cover of We Walk: Life with Severe Autism

Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer Author Of The Little Gate-Crasher: The Life and Photos of Mace Bugen

From my list on disability awareness.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm writer, educator, disability advocate, and mother of a teenage son with multiple disabilities. Since my sonā€™s diagnosis with autism at age three, I've been on a quest to not only understand the way that his unique brain works, but also to advocate for a more just and equitable world for people with disabilities and their families. When researching my book The Little Gate-Crasher, I discovered how much my great-grandmother was a powerful advocate for her son Mace who was born with a form of dwarfism. Our society has evolved in the last one hundred years in terms of inclusion and accessibilityā€”and yet, people with disabilities and their loved ones are often isolated.

Gabrielle's book list on disability awareness

Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer Why did Gabrielle love this book?

As a mother of a child with severe autism, I am grateful to Amy Lutz for writing a book that captures our family's unique challenges. Too often, media focuses on people with autism who need a lower level of support and it can feel like life with severe autism is being overlooked. Lutzā€™s beautiful writing gives you a window into a much-needed read.

By Amy S. F. Lutz,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked We Walk as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this collection of beautiful and raw essays, Amy S. F. Lutz writes openly about her experience-the positive and the negative-as a mother of a now twenty-one-year-old son with severe autism. Lutz's human emotion drives through each page and challenges commonly held ideas that define autism either as a disease or as neurodiversity. We Walk is inspired by her own questions: What is the place of intellectually and developmentally disabled people in society? What responsibilities do we, as citizens and human beings, have to one another? Who should decide for those who cannot decide for themselves? What is the meaningā€¦


Book cover of Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism

Suzanne Goh, MD Author Of Magnificent Minds: The New Whole-Child Approach to Autism

From my list on autism: strengths-based, neurodivergent.

Why am I passionate about this?

My journey began as a high school camp counselor at the Ability Center of Greater Toledo in Ohio. As I worked with children who had neurodevelopmental differences and collaborated with a co-counselor who had cerebral palsy, I saw how people with differences were marginalized and devalued despite being insightful, empathetic, passionate, funny, and talented. My appreciation for their strengths and perspectives shaped my approach as a pediatric neurologist, BCBA, neuroscientist, researcher, and founder of Cortica, which is focused on a whole-child, neurodivergent-affirming approach to care for autism and other neurodevelopmental differences. Reading is an important way for me to stay connected to the strengths-based lens I began cultivating in my teens.

Suzanne's book list on autism: strengths-based, neurodivergent

Suzanne Goh, MD Why did Suzanne love this book?

We live in a world that all too often pathologizes autism and sees autistic people as broken and in need of fixing. In this book, Dr. Barry Prizant sees neurodivergent people through a strengths-based lens.

I appreciate the importance he places on listening to and understanding the experiences of autistic people and how he uses those experiences to illustrate the unique gifts that autistic people bring to the world. Dr. Prizant has helped to inspire the continued evolution of our Cortica clinical care model, and his book highlights the importance of amplifying neurodiverse voices.

By Barry M Prizant, Tom Fields-Meyer,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Uniquely Human as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the Autism Society of Americaā€™s Dr. Temple Grandin Award for the Outstanding Literary Work in Autism

A groundbreaking book on autism, by one of the worldā€™s leading experts, who portrays autism as a unique way of being humanā€”this is ā€œrequired reading...Breathtakingly simple and profoundly positiveā€ (Chicago Tribune).

Autism therapy typically focuses on ridding individuals of ā€œautisticā€ symptoms such as difficulties interacting socially, communication problems, sensory challenges, and repetitive behavior patterns. Now, this updated and expanded edition of Dr. Barry M. Prizantā€™s Uniquely Human tackles new language such as shifting from ā€œperson-first languageā€ to ā€œidentity-first language,ā€ diversity of identityā€¦


Book cover of Children's Drawings (Le Dessin Enfantin)
Book cover of Artful Scribbles: The Significance of Children's Drawings
Book cover of The Innocent Eye

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