Here’s Maud!She’s an autistic girl, about nine years old, and she’s the hero of a new chapter book called MAUD IS MOVING which has just published. I’m the author, Viviane Schwarz, here to tell you more about all that. I started writing MAUD IS MOVING years ago, collecting little stories together. Maud has a lot in common with my younger self – the big hair, the worries about the future and the determination to map and draw everything – but she’s very much her own person now. I am happy I met her, and that you get to meet her, too. This is a book about autistic joy, friendship and adventure. Maud is moving house with her dad. That’s a big deal. She’s not at all sure at first that she will like the new place, and that the new place will like her. But she goes about it in a very practical way. When the new flat on the sixth floor of a busy building turns out to be haunted, she helps the ghost to move out. Together with Dad, Maud unpacks, explores, and story by story, they make a home. Maud gets to know the neighbourhood. She sets her boundaries. Sometimes she would rather spend time with the rain than with other people. And one day, she meets someone who understands that perfectly: Gitta. There are many strange little miracles in this book – the kind of things I was dreaming up when I was a child myself. Drawings that come to life, science experiments going wrong in the best way, mysterious phone calls coming in through the shower. I imagined how good I would be at dealing with that. If something truly remarkable should ever happen, I would be ready, having practiced every day navigating near impossible situations that other people found easy. The world is overwhelming at times, but always full of wonders. I will be back soon to tell you more about the stories in this book, and the drawings, where it came from and what it was like to make the book. For today, I wish you a happy Autism Awareness Day. Go move something. Really taste the tap water, there’s rain in it and the sea. Draw a beautiful horse. Only hug people if you want to. Have a good time being you. Happy Autism Acceptance Day!

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