Looking after Louis

Plot Summary

"There's a new boy at school called Louis. Louis sits next to me and I look out for him. He's not quite like the rest of us. Sometimes I wonder what he's thinking about. He often just sits and stares at the wall. If I ask him what he's looking at, he says, 'Looking at,' and keeps on looking."

Louis has autism, but through imagination, kindness, and a special game of soccer, his classmates find a way to join him in his world. Then they can include Louis in theirs.

Reviews

"Written by a clinical psychologist, this (fictional) view of an autistic child finding his place in a mainstream classroom bears a clear but not ponderous agenda. Louis tends to stare at the wall, parrot the last phrase he hears, draw inscrutable pictures, and sail right through playground soccer games--to all of which his classmates react with a mix of giggles, mild annoyance, and curiosity that, after calm conversations with their teacher, warm to acceptance. Dunbar illustrates this lesson in tolerance with sketchy scenes rendered in a childlike, cartoon style; in his bright red pullover, Louis is an easily spotted figure among the other, actively posed children, and like the montages of his jumbled but not entirely abstract paintings that open and close the episode, comes across as different but not, ultimately, beyond comprehension." Kirkus Reviews

"This upbeat look at mainstreaming is told from the point of view of a little girl who sits next to an autistic boy. ...Dunbar's child-like paintings cleverly show how Louis is essentially the same as the other kids--he could be any one of the boys in the class, until the artwork focuses more closely on him." School Library Journal

"Dunbar's lively mixed-media pictures deliver a healthy dose of wry humor, demonstrating that the 'normal' kids in the class have some behavior and control issues themselves. There's a lot of dead-on sulking, raspberry-blowing, pigtail-sucking, and talking out of turn among this spidery-limbed, bubble-eyed crew, and if viewers examine the illustrations with open minds, they may realize that Louis is probably not the teachers' biggest challenge." The Bulletin

"Though most adults will quickly catch on that Louis is autistic, children might not fully grasp the situation. But that may not matter much, as the story is more about creative kindness and inclusion than it is about autism; it's really a big-hearted example of persistence and compassion, and little ones won't have a problem understanding that." Booklist

Associated Keywords
autism, autistic