I loved the spiritual take it took on Autism. As a Mama of two girls with diagnosed Autism and a baby who most likely also has it, and who has AuDHD herself, it’s lovely to see more books being supportive of Autism and to help find the strengths in it rather than see it as a weakness. I also love, as a person doing our best to live a non-toxic lifestyle, that it addressed heavy metal toxicity. I had brought that up with our Dr as a possible adage to one of our daughter’s Autism diagnosis. Even though she was polite we were dismissed, however heavy metal detoxes made a huge difference for her. It was so lovely to know we aren’t the only parents going through this, and that it wasn’t all in my head, and my intuition was correct. (Medical gaslighting, even if the Dr means well, can be a difficult issue, especially in people with Autism/the caregivers.) Even though I disagree with heavy metal toxicity and Autism being the same thing, as I believe if I inferred correctly, so does the author, now, I believe they can play off one another. It’s also lovely to see that, through his own trial and error, the author doesn’t believe Autism needs to be “cured.” As an Autistic and Autism Mama who was forced to mask for most of my life, and how damaging it was to my psyche, I want better for my children. So whilst I don’t wish to “cure” them, as I believe there is strength in Autism, I do my best to make their life better and easier. This includes providing them with necessary tools such as mindfulness and headphones and natural fibre clothing to help reduce and cope with sensory overload.

The only thing I didn’t love was a reference to an author who is a parent of an Autistic child, who later turned out to be a child abuser of her adopted daughter, and apparently financially abused the son who the book was about. She also used a ghostwriter, so the words most likely cannot be accurately contributed to her, as a result. There is also a query to how much of her book was fabricated. Whilst there’s now doubting Jacob’s intelligence, he himself has come forward in later years and accused his mother of abuse, so how much credit she can take for “nurturing” his skills, and how much was his own natural intelligence, is debatable. Perhaps the author may not have known this, so can be forgiven for that. However, a better reference could have definitively been used here, or he could had referred solely to Jacob instead of also his mother.

Otherwise was both well-researched, and navigated seamlessly between both the logical and emotional, with both references of Autistic people and their skill sets, and a narrative/memoir of his life as a parent of an Autistic person.

A love story from father to son, this book is a beautiful reminder of how Autistic/neurodivergent relationships can be just as wonderful as neurotypical ones.

AS a reader with autism, I found this book interesting, and sometimes entertaining- a non-autistic man's journey to understand autism as his son grows up with this neurotype. The author's experiences trace the ways autism has been understood and misunderstood over the past few decades. Udy's son had moderate support needs as a child, and it seems like a testament to Udy's openmindedness that he was able to find ways to help his son learn how to cope with his challenges and develop a successful adult life. I had to laugh sometimes at how perplexed Udy is that his son'd social life and friendships don't look like what Udy likes for himself.- my own friendships and social life are enough like his son's that I could recognize the similarities and had to strain to imagine what Udy would think was wrong with all that. Overall, this was an interesting glimpse at one family's experience with autism, and I will be looking into the brain typing system he references in this book, which sounded interesting.

This was a DNF for me. My son is autistic and it was too painful for me to read. Maybe it gets better, but with what we are going through right now, it wasn’t for me as it was discouraging and I couldn’t stomach it. I didn’t see the message of hope in it.

Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc.

An unsuccessful hybrid of a book. It opens with sturdy, somewhat affecting memoir passages about raising an autistic child, with Udy pursuing several approaches including at least one which has been roundly discredited. But the book's true focus is a curious blend of self-help and business-speak as the author seeks to, as the title promises, rebrand autism in a way that places people on the autism spectrum first. These sections are far less effective despite Udy's evident sincerity.

In all honesty, I cannot finish this book. I made it about 50% before I decided to DNF. This review that I am providing in exchange for an advance look, is coming from an Autistic individual, so my judgement is based on that fact. This author and this book gives massive " I support Autism Speaks and proudly show off my blue puzzle piece tattoo". He still incorporates out of date words such as "high-functioning" and this book seems to almost infantilize most of the autistic individuals that he writes about, including his own son.

It's 2025, and almost the entire world is aware that autism exists. This book seems to be almost in awe of the fact that autistic people have to do things differently and if you let them, they thrive.

The idea of this book is a good one. Autism isn't a killer and it needs to be seen as a difference of thinking and living life. The execution of this book however, does not do that.

This book started out okay. I liked hearing about the diagnosis and how they navigated their lives before and after the diagnosis.
However towards the end I found I was just skipping over bit that weren't really applicable to my life.
Not too bad book though - just the end let it down

There was a lot I really liked about this book, but I also have a few reservations that keep me from whole-heartedly recommending it. The things I really struggled with were:
1. The author talks about using chelation therapy with his son. This is in no way scientifically backed, and the idea that heavy metals “cause” autism has been fully debunked. Udy basically says that maybe it helped and maybe it didn’t, which in my opinion is just irresponsible.
2. Although there are a few points in the book where Udy interviews his son to get his perspective on things, most of the book is Udy trying to “decode” how his son experiences the world and why he behaves in certain ways. While certainly communication is a challenge for some autistic people, in general there’s no need to “decode” our behavior; you can just ask us why we do certain things. I would have liked to see Udy’s son involved a lot more in the writing, and more suggestions by Udy that parents ask their child about their experience of the world.
3. The focus of this book is really on “autism isn’t a bad thing because look at all the great things autistics can contribute to society,” and while I think that’s important, I would have liked to see the point made that autistic people have value, even if they don’t ever get a job and become a traditionally “productive” member of society.

There was a lot to really like about this book, though!
1. Udy is really committed to a strengths focused view of autism, which is amazing. I love that, as a parent, he learned to stop seeing his son as damaged or broken, and began seeing his incredible strengths. I also really appreciate that he didn’t see the goal as making his son more “normal,” but instead helping his son to be successful.
2. Udy also talks about how it’s not just autistic people’s responsibility to change to fit society; society should change to better accommodate us, too. He repeatedly discusses how the world works the way it does by design, which means that the design can be changed. This is still a pretty rare take amongst neurotypicals, so it was really refreshing to see him talk about this repeatedly.
3. The fact that he acknowledges that “autistic behaviors” are actually responses to stimuli is huge--a lot of people still don’t recognize that, so I think that was a really valuable discussion.
4. I actually really like the idea of “rebranding autism” and helping people to see it in a more positive way.
5. There are some good analogies for helping explain to neurotypical people how autistic people experience and process the world.
6. The section at the end that is geared toward helping people find a job that’s a good fit was great; I think it would be really helpful for anyone entering the job market, not just autistic people.

Overall, I think this could be a useful book for parents of autistic children, particularly if they’re struggling with their child’s diagnosis, but I would definitely see this as a starting point, rather than the single book that they should read. This is a good entry point to the idea of autistic strengths, but it needs to be followed up with reading books by autistic authors describing and discussing their experiences.

I do think that this book is not what it thinks it is. Like I still keep thinking about it and how some of the examples it used makes it seem like everyone is autistic. Like I don't know. In a world where there is so much misinformation this adds to it because it even mentions how at one point they told them that autism is caused by a build up of minerals in the body. like what?

Thanks to the publisher for the eARC; all opinions are my own.

I DNF'd this book after a few chapters for a few reasons.

1. The author writes about using chelation therapy to try to remove heavy metals from his son's body, believing that causes autism. Chelation has been debunked as a treatment for autism, which the author absolutely fails to note. Moreover, the author does not provide any links to scientific studies on work done to understand if there are linkages between heavy metals and autism. By not doing so, parents may read this section and think that this could be a way forward, especially as the author seems to hedge his bets in saying well, maybe it helped, maybe it didn't.

2. The author consistently centres HIS experiences and HIS expectations for his son. It's very bizarre to be running speed drills for toddlers. The author seems obsessed with having his son follow in his footsteps and continue his legacy.

3. The author is not autistic. There are so many amazing autistic people out there writing books about what it is like being autistic. I would much rather read those books and support those authors. The author can only write from the lived experience as a parent of an autistic child and cannot fully understand or appreciate what it is to navigate life as an autistic person.

A moving and hopeful book told from the perspective of a parent of an autistic child and their experience advocating for and learning to accept their son's differences. This was great on audio and a must read for any parent who has an autistic child. I especially appreciated the sections on supporting your child's endeavors with gainful employment and advocating for them during school years with IEPs. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Thanks to NetGalley and Autism Elevated LLC for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

April is Autism Acceptance Month here in the United States. New data shows that one in 31 children today are diagnosed with autism. Not only do I have a child on the spectrum, but I also spent a year working for the Autism Society of Northeastern Wisconsin. When we first got my son’s diagnosis years ago, I read everything that was out there about autism. We had our son attend social skills classes, and there was some overlap with classes in school, too.

But now he’s an adult and has struggled. He only lasted one year in college, in part because he has a hard time advocating for himself and has had a hard time keeping a job for a variety of reasons. Rebranding Autism is a different way to look at people on the spectrum and how they can thrive as they grow up and enter adulthood. This is just what we need.

The author’s personal stories involving his son were the best part of the book, IMO. I found myself nodding and remembering how we faced similar issues with R. Like the author’s son, our son was what was once called High Functioning. That is who this book is geared to.

Clain Udy has a unique way of looking at autism and how people can help those on the spectrum. Instead of focusing on an autistic individual’s deficits, Udy urges parents and caregivers to lean into their strengths This is also something our son’s teacher advocated. The author’s son had a hyper-focused interest (very common for those with autism) that could also be translated into a job. We, too, encouraged our son to try and find a job that was geared towards his hyper fixation, but in our case, that interest doesn’t equate to a career in our city.

Ultimately, Rebranding Autism is a practical guide that shows how to support autistic individuals in their search for a career and how to do it. And that’s just what this world needs, especially when our Health and Human Services director calls autism a “chronic disease” or that children with autism are “damaged.” The only thing damaged about those with autism is thinking that they are less than. It’s time to reframe the conversation, and this book is a great start.