Rather than attempt a literal translation, documentarian Jerry Rothwell interprets and riffs on Higashida’s writing, amplifying the ideas in a way that’s at once impressionistic yet lucid. Naoki Higashida’s slender tome, written when he was just 13, is a collection of 58 questions and answers that convey what it feels like to be autistic. The book includes eleven original illustrations inspired by Naoki's words, by the artistic duo Kai and Sunny.The Reason I Jump is an object lesson in turning a book based on a literary conceit into riveting cinema. Directed by Jerry Rothwell, produced by Jeremy Dear, Stevie Lee and Al Morrow, and funded by Vulcan Productions and the British Film Institute, it won the festival's Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary, then further awards at the Vancouver, Denver and Valladolid International Film Festivals before its global release in 2021. In 2020, a documentary film based on the book received its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. 1 Sunday Times bestseller as well as a New York Times bestseller and has since been published in over thirty languages. Proving that people with autism do not lack imagination, humour or empathy, THE REASON I JUMP made a major impact on its publication in English. He explains behaviour he's aware can be baffling such as why he likes to jump and why some people with autism dislike being touched he describes how he perceives and navigates the world, sharing his thoughts and feelings about time, life, beauty and nature and he offers an unforgettable short story. Severely autistic and non-verbal, Naoki learnt to communicate by using a 'cardboard keyboard' - and what he has to say gives a rare insight into an autistically-wired mind. This groundbreaking book, written by Naoki Higashida when he was only thirteen, provides some answers. What is it like to have autism? How can we know what a person - especially a child - with autism is thinking and feeling? 'It will stretch your vision of what it is to be human' Andrew Solomon, The Times 1 Sunday Times and internationally bestselling account of life as a child with autism, now a documentary film Winner of Best Documentary and Best Sound in the British Independent Film Awards 2021.

The reason i jump by naoki higashida