Books like Everyday Hero — picked by fans

Have you ever read a book that grabbed you with a character challenged by circumstances you’d never considered? Imagine being blind and trying to survive WWII! I was intrigued by this essentially two-person novel set during World War II, which had a ‘cast’ of millions.

Again, the characters! Marie-Laure LaBlanc is a young blind French woman hiding in her great-uncle’s house in Saint-Malo after the Nazis invade Paris. I found Doerr’s lyrical sensory descriptions of Marie-Laure’s efforts to make her way around town as she’s pulled into the French resistance thrilling. I loved the depth of characterization when I met the second main character, Werner Pfennig, a radio repair savant, and his journey from a Nazi soldier tracking down illicit resistance radio operators to a young man repulsed by the Nazi brutalization of civilians.

The characters and intrigue pulled me through this book; mixed in with the eventual connection of… show more.

This made me laugh, and it made me cry. I challenge anybody with a heart not to feel for Augie Pullman as he not only survives a new school and new situation but thrives in them. He doesn’t just overcome his self-doubt; he proves to himself and everyone else that he’s not only his classmates’ equal but their superior. Augie surpasses every single other child character in this book with his compassion and intelligence. He is a hero of the 21st century. 

As cliché as it sounds, I couldn’t put it down. In between reading sessions (that I undertook with my daughter), I found myself obsessing about Augie’s plight and wondering what would happen to him next. I needed to know how the young boy with the messed-up face would respond and react to whatever challenges the world, his school, his town, his family, and his friend threw at him.… show more.

What I love about this book is that Christopher is such an unusual child and sees the world in ways that most of us do not.

In reading this bizarre and disturbing mystery story, we begin to see the world differently ourselves. I like, too, the fact that what is different about him is never named – it’s not some specific diagnosis or categorization – he is just Christopher, the odd, mathematically gifted, strangely reacting, teenager.

When he becomes terrified of what we might take as quite ordinary events and places, I begin to feel some of his difference – to feel what it might be like to be so much an outsider. It helped me to remember that we are all different.

Twelve-year-old Emmaline and her mother are desperate for help with their farm and agree to take on Angus who has just been released from a hospital for patients with mental illness. At first they have the same fears and prejudice as people in town, but they come to learn that Angus is gentle and extremely knowledgeable. Thanks to him they have the best crop they’ve ever had. The most heroic point in the story is when one of the locals, Harry Record, leaves Angus far from town during a snowstorm with the expectation he will die. But as Angus struggles for safety he finds Harry’s little boy who was accidentally stranded in the storm and near death and gets him to the hospital in time to save his life. 

Quote: "That man is from the mental, stay away from him." 

This book was lovely to read because it was written… show more.

I loved this book when I first read it. It was ground-breaking at the time by presenting the autistic female world like no one else had done in this way before.

Rudi’s humour and relatable way of writing gave me an insight into what it meant to be an autistic woman. She paved the way for the rest of us writing in this way.

I discovered this book by chance in a second-hand shop–what a find it was! John Elder Robinson was also raised in a time when the diagnosis of autism did not exist. He had to wait until he was forty to get a diagnosis.

As a boy, he had been described as a ‘misfit’ or ‘defective’ when, in fact, he was hugely talented and, as we find out here, a natural storyteller. I found this book to be a darkly funny, fascinating insight into the life of a man who never fit in but didn’t know why–until he finally found out.

Living with autism is hard enough today–it boggles my mind to think that autism has always been with us and that generations of autistic people have had to struggle with no chance of understanding. 

This is an oldie but a goodie, first published in 2007.

It is a standalone mystery narrated by Ted, a neurodiverse boy who thinks differently from other children. Ted's unique skills include noticing patterns, paying close attention to detail, and seeing what others overlook. All qualities that make him the perfect detective.

Ted and his sister, Kat, watch their cousin Salim board the London Eye. But when the ride ends, Salim does not get off. So begins the mystery: What has happened to Salim?

I would recommend this great page turner for readers aged 11 to 14.

Marcelo Sandoval hears music that nobody else can hear. He’s neurodivergent. But in his life most people often don’t believe in his experience or value his perspective. When he joins “the real world” by working in a law office for a summer, he learns lessons very different from just office work. He is introduced to love and affection and jealousy and injustice and desire. Lots of things happen in this book – and I love the way that Marcelo’s voice is privileged here. His neurodivergence is a strength, rather than a weakness. I truly enjoyed this book.

This is the story of a girl named Rose, who is autistic and obsessed with homonyms. She lives with her father who’s often impatient with her needs and abandons her to drink at the local bar. Her mother has vanished, and Rose turns to her sympathetic uncle and her beloved new dog for comfort. When her dad lets the dog out during a storm, Rose and her uncle find the dog and realize it already has an owner. She learns the truth of her mother’s disappearance and moves in with her uncle. 

Once again, here’s a story about the healing relationship that can exist between a kid and an animal. And as the sibling of a person with Down syndrome and a former special education teacher, I’m impressed with the author’s respectful portrayal of a girl on the autism spectrum.

When my daughter was diagnosed as autistic aged 10, I was desperate to be able to describe her and her ‘condition’ to the school so they would know how best to help her.

I was so grateful to discover this book by Clare Sainsbury (of the supermarket family), who is autistic herself. In it, she describes her schoolgirl experience and how she felt like a 'Martain in the Playground.' She was eight or nine when she realized she was ‘different in some nameless but all-pervasive way.’

I found reading this book to be nerve-wracking and heartbreaking but necessary. It looked into how my daughter was likely feeling every day. In a way, it was a guidebook for my own child.