Temple Grandin Biography for Teens

I found this book at our local library a few weeks ago, and I had to share! I haven’t read the entire book, but I loved how it emphasizes Dr. Grandin’s strengths/talents related to how she thinks and processes information. She also wrote a forward to the book which I thought had some great tips for teens and young adults with autism.

I checked this book out from the library for my 11-year-old, but after looking over it, I think I would recommend it for older teens and maybe young adults. It has some descriptons of some bullying and name-calling that Temple experienced (including being called the “R” word) and also some graphic descriptions of animal slaughter conditions at the cattle processing facilities where Temple does a lot of work. As a note, if you’re not familiar with her story, Temple works with these processing facilities to make them more humane for the animals.

If you feel like your child would be okay to handle those issues, I think this book would be a great story for them to read. I also think it’s a good awareness read for non-autistic folks as well. Of course, I have to include a disclaimer to read the entire book before you give it to your child and also disclose that I didn’t read the whole book yet, so there may be other content that I missed.

You can read more about the book on Amazon here:

"Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World"

by Sy Montgomery and Temple Grandin