'Bayani and the ABCs of Me' is a children's book that has a main character in the autism spectrum

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A children’s storybook hopes to represent people in the autism spectrum at an early age.

“Bayani and the ABCs of Me” follows the story of Bayani, a Filipino child in the autism spectrum learning the alphabet and his Filipino heritage.

It is written by Filipino-American authors Redner Salonga and Irene Batario while Arli Pagaduan was in charge of the illustration. 

“What we wanted to do is break down autism in a way that can relate to children [so] people can understand autism in a simple way,” Salonga told GMA News Online in an interview.

"The book goes through a journey of Bayani and sharing his culture of being Filipino," he added.

For Salonga, the book was is not only their way of connecting with the Filipino community but of adding more resources for people in the autism spectrum.

“‘Bayani’ is a way to connect with those families and to share about the autism community and about individuals in the spectrum. When we did research, there were very few resources for autistic families. 'Bayani' is actually one of the first Filipino children's books [with a character in the spectrum that's] related to the ABCs and written by Filipino Americans,” he said. 

The book goes beyond representation as the proceeds of its sales goes to programs and partnerships supporting causes for people with disabilities (PWD) community such as the Big Step Special Education Center in Nueva Ecija.

For Pagaduan it is important that kids see themselves in a story and as they learn how they act with the stories that they read and learn.

“All children should be able to see themselves in the books published in the Philippines. It should not just be about this or that, but the themes or characters should be people that we see in our everyday lives,” the illustrator said.

“It is also important for people to understand how they see the world, or how they experience the world, so that when they meet an autistic child, these people know how to talk with them, or understand more about how they see the world, or how they react to certain things,” she added. 

“Bayani and the ABCs of Me” is priced at P350 and is available in Shopee, Pinagpala Publishing, and other independent retailers such as Latte Library, Literary Lounge Cafe, among others. — LA, GMA Integrated News