Review of “May I Come to Your Party?” by Grace A. Wolf & Samuel J. Gross

Score: 84/100 (8.4 out of 10)

May I Come to Your Party? is touching children's book about the subject of autism by Grace A. Wolf, illustrated by her older brother, Samuel J. Gross, who has lived with autism for most of his life.

The book follows Jimmy, a little boy who loves dinosaurs, drawing, trains, and video games (like many kids). However, unlike most kids, Jimmy is autistic. This affects how he communicates and interacts with others. It also makes him sensitive to lights and loud sounds, which seems strange or even weird to others.

Jimmy is a compelling character, in part, because of how introverted he is. He is a daydreamer and has a very big imagination, which he mostly keeps to himself, expressing them in the form of illustrations. You can't help but feel like Jimmy is directly inspired by Samuel Gross (the illustrator) himself.

One of Jimmy's classmates, Clara, is having a birthday party. She invites everyone in the class except for Jimmy, believing him to be weird or even scary. This is largely because she doesn't understand autism.

This greatly hurts Jimmy, as it would hurt a lot of us. In fact, this story is incredibly familiar and relatable. We all know what it feels like to be rejected or left out. We all know what it feels like to feel different or like we don't fit in. We all know what it feels like to feel like we don't belong.

At the same time, it's easy to be angry with or even hate Clara for what seems like a cruel act, but this book doesn't encourage these harsh responses. Clara, like a lot of us, is just afraid of what she doesn't know—what she doesn't understand: the fear of the unknown. This is a natural instinct that most human beings have. This is why we usually surround ourselves with like-minded or similar people.

However, a remarkable supporting character named Alice is able to intervene. She is able to talk to and educate Clara about what autism is and how it works. She is able to tell Clara that Jimmy is a human being like everyone else, someone with hopes, dreams, and imagination.

It's with this understanding that Clara is able to right her wrong. Jimmy attends her party and the two presumably become good friends afterward.

It's a really beautiful and powerful story.

While the illustrations aren't the strong-point of this book, we completely understand that they come from a place of passion and love. Samuel L. Gross may not be Rembrandt (yet), but he is clearly trying and getting better. You can say that the humans in the illustrations look a little bit like stick figures or that their heads, in particular, look a little warped. However, the characters and the actions on the page are still distinct, clear, and easy to understand. We would rather have hand-drawn, hand-colored illustrations like this in the book than most AI-generated art. We encourage Samuel Gross to continue to practice and get better at his craft. Everything can get better with time and practice.

All in all, this is a powerful story about a very important subject.

Check it out on Amazon!