When Autism Comes to Roost: A Family's Journey From Denial to Acceptance

By Alicia Hendley PhD

 See an interview with the author

  
 It was a typical middle class family with two professional parents and four kids when the parents began receiving notes from nursery school about their 3rd child, Max. This set the family on an unexpected journey together as they struggled to accept and accommodate. An illuminating read for any family faced with an emerging physical or mental disability in a child.

From a Review at Autism Daily Newscast: "Anyone who is affected by autism but especially parents" would benefit from this book. 

Alicia Hendley has written a great book -- a marvelously crafted hunk of honesty. The different views of a family -- these  memories and this evocation of difficulty --  come without sentimentality or apology. Read this book and let it change you for the better. Darin Strauss, Recipient of a National Book Critics Circle Award, Nominated for PEN Hemingway Award.

"Alicia Hendley's memoir is one of the most poignant, raw and illuminating books about autism I have read. Her candor, humility and honesty provides real insight into not only the challenges of autism but also the pure joy and happiness autism brings to the world. This memoir will help people gain a much deeper understanding of autism and will forever change the way people view and treat people on the spectrum." ~ Jessica Hutchison, Program Manager Autism Services Waterloo Region.

In her new memoir, When Autism Comes to Roost, Alicia Hendley, a trained psychologist, is particularly well-placed to chronicle how the day-to-day lives of parents with children on the autism spectrum invariably teeter between fragility and strength, worry and hope. There are no quick fixes here, no easy solutions – just a woman, touchingly honest about her own challenges, struggling to do the best she can. That’s the good news. The better news is that Hendley is a wonderfully engaging writer. Parents of all kinds of kids will marvel at the remarkable balancing act she performs telling her family’s demanding and ultimately inspiring story. Joel Yanofsky, author of 4 books including Bad Animals: A Father’s Accidental Education in Autism

"Alicia Hendley has written a highly personal memoir of her struggle to come to terms with her son’s diagnosis as well as her own. Raw, honest, and poignant, the book stays with you long after you’ve finished reading.”

About The Author

Alicia Hendley is the mother of four children, including a son with autism. She has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and worked for years as a psychologist. She is the author of two novels (A Subtle Thing and Type). Her poetry and nonfiction have been published in Room Magazine and Hippocampus Magazine. She was long-listed for the Vanderbilt-Exile Short Fiction Award in both 2010 and 2011. She was short-listed for the 2014 CBC Canada Writes Stories of Belonging competition.

Dr. Hendley is an advocate within the autism community and blogs regularly for an Ontario autism website. Her post (“Mommy, do I have autism?”) was also published in the winter 2014 issue of Autism Matters magazine. Dr. Hendley is a frequent speaker about her experiences on autism and parenting.

Reviews of her book A Subtle Thing:

"wonderfully written first novel" The Record

"Raw, honest and relentless" Goodreads

"a gritty and raw novel that hits the reader in a powerful and sincere way" Goodreads

"I couldn't put the book down" Goodreads

4.1 stars out of 5 on Goodreads

"Illuminating" Amazon 4 stars

Reviews of her book Type:

"If I have one complaint about this book, it's this: It ended" Goodreads

3.47 stars out of 5 on Goodreads

" a great summer read" Amazon

When Autism Comes to Roost, ISBN 978-1-927637-23-4, 225 pages, $19.95 and distributed by Ingram.

 Amazon US, Amazon Canada, Chapters, Barnes and Noble and Kindle