When Temple Grandin was born, her parents knew that she was different. As a baby, she was silent and unresponsive; as a toddler, she threw violent temper tantrums but never spoke a word. It wasn't until years later that she was diagnosed with autism, a brain disorder that makes communication difficult. Temple's father wanted to put her into a mental institution. But her mother believed in her, and so Temple went to school instead.
Today, Dr. Temple Grandin is a brilliant scientist and professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Her world-changing career has revolutionized the livestock industry—each year, half the cattle in the United States are handled in cruelty-free facilities she has designed. She is also a passionate advocate for autism, using her experience to prove that people with this disorder can have great lives.
To achieve this unprecedented success, Temple used one of the strengths of autism: she thinks visually, the same way animals do. Because she thinks in pictures, she can see the world as a cow, or a dog, or a pig might see it. And so she knows that animals raised for food deserve good lives and should be treated with respect. Now she gives them a voice. Temple has more than earned respect for herself, too, but things weren't always so easy ...
In this compelling biography, the author Sy Montgomery takes us inside Temple Grandin's extraordinary mind and opens the door to a broader understanding of autism.
