The Mind Tree: A Miraculous Child Breaks the Silence of Autism - Softcover

Mukhopadhyay, Tito Rajarshi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1611450020 ISBN 13: 9781611450026

Publisher: Arcade, 2011

Synopsis

Well-received on initial publication, The Mind Tree is truly an enthralling read. Although he is severely autistic and nearly nonverbal, Tito’s ability to communicate through his extraordinary writing is astonishing. At the age of three, Tito was diagnosed with severe autism. But his mother, with boundless hope and determination, read to him and taught him to write in English. She also challenged him to write his own stories. The result of their efforts is this remarkable book written when he was eight to eleven years old comprised of profound and startling philosophical prose and poetry. During a New York Times interview, Tito scrawled on a yellow pad, I need to write . . . It has become a part of me.”

About this title

About the Author:

Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay was diagnosed in early childhood with severe or low functioning non-verbal autism. He communicates primarily through writing and has learned to develop his reading, writing, and thinking abilities. The national organization Autism Speaks sponsored Tito and his mother, Soma, to come to the United States so he could participate in scientific trials. Tito is now an accomplished writer. He lives in Austin, Texas.

From Publishers Weekly:

Now 15 years old, the Bengali boy known as "Tito" wrote the texts collected in this book between the ages of eight and 11. That fact would be remarkable in itself, given their exquisite beauty and concision in describing the world of their author ("the cobweb of uncertainty remained"), but Tito's severe autism, diagnosed when he was three, makes them little short of miraculous. Tito's mother Soma taught him to write in Bengali and in English by working with him intensively over years. While there have been skeptics of Tito's writing ability (as documented in 60 Minutes and Good Morning America features), the experience of reading the book together with testimony from psychiatrist Lorna Wing convinces that Tito wrote it himself. It documents, with patient and poetic clarity, the experience of not fitting in, of finding the world beautiful, of having trouble making oneself understood-in short, of life as most people experience it.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Arcade
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1611450020
• ISBN 13: 9781611450026
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224