Madi Starts School (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780994503756)

Monique Cain grew up in the lovely seaside town of Rosebud, Australia and is married to Michael, her high school sweetheart. They have two very special children Madi and Thomas who are both autistic. As Monique says, "Every parent has dreams for her children and Michael and I were no different. Our reality changed when Madi was about 2 years old and we suddenly realised that she had some major behavioural challenges that couldn't be resolved by diet, discipline, or sleep. It took a while to work out what was going on with Madi because we were completely unprepared." I started writing this book in response to a request from Madi's teacher who wanted to help other kids understand her better. I tried to speak in Madi's voice so they could see that autism is not something to be scared of and that kids who are 'different' still want to be friends. The response to that first version of the book was amazing so I went on to get it professionally illustrated and published.