Flap Your Hands

Review
By Booklist

This beautiful book celebrates the action of stimming as a means of emotional regulation. In his contextually important author’s note, Asbell identifies as autistic and explains that while everyone engages in some form of stimming—perhaps tapping one’s foot when impatient or clicking one’s pen when stressed—this behavior “is not just natural and healthy but even necessary for autistics.” Though autism is never directly mentioned in the main text, children on the spectrum may well recognize some of the comforting and expressive actions described here. Vibrant, impressionistic illustrations created in Photoshop introduce four preliminary scenes of children experiencing sensory overload or overwhelming emotions before launching into gorgeous double-page spreads of the same kids using stimming as a positive outlet for their feelings. In one, a girl flutters her fingers by her ears when street traffic grows too loud. Another shows an overwhelmed boy pause to “tickle the space next to [his] face to enjoy the sparkling lights.” The short second-person sentences give the text an inviting tone that furthers the book’s uplifting and inclusive messaging.