Anything But Typical

Aaron and Jason have been friends since kindergarten. Now, Aaron is Jason’s only friend at school, consistently sticking up for Jason when other kids pick on him, and maintaining the relationship as best as he can. Aaron always makes a place for Jason at his lunch table, listens to Jason’s stories, and defends him from mean students. Aaron’s warm nickname for Jason—“Jay-Man”—demonstrates his good will, tolerance, and positive attitude towards the sometimes hard to like Jason. Aaron offers an example of how people can relate to someone with autism and build a solid relationship, despite their differing styles of communication.

Jeremy is Jason’s nine-year-old brother. Jason describes him as a typical neurotypical because Jeremy fully expresses his emotions and is always happy to be engaged in imaginative play. He and Jason get along really well, offering each other support and comfort. Jeremy understands Jason better than anyone else can, usually guessing what is on Jason’s mind without a word.

Because Jeremy has a few behavioral quirks, the brothers’ parents worry that Jason’s autism has affected Jeremy. In response, they overanalyze Jeremy’s tendency to cry when disappointed or his preference for food not to touch on his place as evidence that he is learning atypical behaviors from Jason (even though Jason does not exhibit any of Jeremy’s specific quirks). This makes Jason feel like because he was born atypical, Jeremy is their parents’ attempt at getting it right.  

Jason’s mother loving and high-strung Elizabeth devotes all of her time to caring for her sons and advocates strongly for Jason. She believes that Jason deserves every opportunity to lead a normal, independent life. She also struggles with anxiety, although she appears to be oblivious to that fact. Jason is highly attuned to her stress, nerves, and anxious behaviors—seeing them tends to trigger him into hand flapping or rocking.

Elizabeth struggles to believe that Jason loves her, because she doesn’t get to hear him say the words or see him express his love physically as her son Jeremy does. She wishes Jason would hug her, cry when she leaves, or make any other physical gestures that neurotypical children would. However, she has an awakening at the end of the novel and learns to understand the complexity of Jason’s emotions when she accompanies him to the Storyboard conference.  

Jason’s calm, patient father works as a transcriptionist for sports events. His own predilection for language helps him understand and support Jason’s development as a young boy. He is the first one to recognize how important letters and the written word are for Jason, so he paints the alphabet on Jason’s ceiling. Jason loves his father and always feels calmed by his presence. In particular, Jason loves it when his father hugs him—his father’s larger body is warm and comforting when it envelops Jason’s smaller one.