The Game of My Life: A True Story of Challenge, Triumph, and Growing Up Autistic

by Daniel Paisner and Jason J-Mac McElwain

Book Overview

McElwain's inspiring account of his lifelong battle to overcome a diagnosis of autism and the role basketball played in transforming his life. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451223012
• ISBN13: 9780451223012
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: New American Library
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Should Be Required Reading

This is just an amazing story and J-Mac is an amazing person. This book should be required reading for grades 5 through 12. It would show "normal" children and young adults a view from the other side. Frankly, I believe this young man is the kind of "normal" that all people should strive toward. I highly recommend this book.

Wonderful book

This book was awesome, I could not put it down. You can really tell that he wrote it. It makes you understand what goes on in his head.

THE GREATEST TRUE BASKETBALL STORY OF ALL TIME!!!

Jason McElwain's autobiography is well written and informative. It describes the essential details of his life. The book presents interviews with the most important people who have interacted with Jason. It is highly recommended reading. Jason's coping with his autism is relieved by his pleasure of playing basketball. Jason in one basketball game colossally surmounts being autistic by being artistic with his incredible three point shooting accuracy. He sinks a total of twenty points with six three point shots and a two point field goal( where he mistakenly was standing on the three point line ) within the last three minutes and nine seconds of his team's game. This performance was so incredibly phenomenal Jason's life story is currently being developed into a national movie release. One facet of Jason ( "J-Mac's" ) personal basketball practice ( "shootarounds" ) was never revealed in his autobiography that might potentially be interesting to the public is his personal "best" basketball shooting statistics and records. What percentage of three point shots and free throws did Jason sink in practice? What were the most consecutive three point shots or most consecutive free throws Jason ever sank in practice? What was the longest practice session shot Jason ever sank? Did Jason ever sink or perfect any practice "trick shots" or any other trick basketball handling or dribbling skills such as spinning the basketball upon his finger? I am an internationally famous basketball trick shooter and inspirational and motivational speaker named JIM "TRICK SHOT" LISTER. I sink many of the most unusual and most difficult basketball trick shots in basketball history with an astonishingly high degree of accuracy despite shooting the basketball with a crippled right shooting hand. My own personal basketball triumph over adversity is considered by some basketball experts to be one of the greatest true basketball stories of all time. I personally rate Jason McElwain's heart-wrenchingly and tear-jerkingly basketball triumph-over-an-obstacle accomplishment as the single greatest true basketball story of all time!!!

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RECEIVED THIS BOOK VERY QUICKLY. GREAT CONDITION. REAL BARGAIN. HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS SELLER!

RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "AN AUTISTIC HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL PLAYER TOUCHES AMERICA'S HEARTS!"

Just about every person in America who had a television set and watched any channel's news or sports report during the week of February 15th 2006 had saw and heard about Jason "J-Mac" McElwain! This teenage boy, having been diagnosed in childhood with autism, though normally just the team manager for his Greece Athena High School varsity basketball team in Rochester New York, was allowed to actually suit up for "Senior Night" the last game of the regular season. Coach Johnson had promised him he could wear a uniform but said he couldn't guarantee he would be able to get him in to the game, but he'd try. The introduction and ending to this amazing "FOREST GUMP-LIKE BASKETBALL STORY" is written by Daniel Paisner. There is also a postscript entitled: "SPECIAL NOTE FROM J-MAC'S PARENTS". But everything else in between is "WRITTEN" by Jason himself. Note: Jason likes being called "J-Mac", but his mother likes Jason, so I'll honor his mother in the rest of this review.) The way Jason is "writing" is speaking his thoughts into a tape recorder, and then when he gets out everything he wants to say, he reads it back on paper to see how it is. Jason says: "Maybe there'll be some things I forgot, and some things I didn't remember right. And maybe I'll change my mind about something I wanted to say at first. I'm not actually holding a pencil in my hand or sitting in front of a computer, but it's a kind of writing. For me it's the same thing as writing. It's organizing my thoughts and getting them down on paper in a way that tells what I'm thinking, what I remember, what I want to say about some of the incredible things that have happened to me." What the reader will be blessed with is at times heart-warming, at times sad, at times simply incredible, and always so interesting and educational, about a world that most people can never see inside of. But with Jason's remarkable "writing" we're given a view heretofore never seen by the world at large. Jason confirms many clinical statements but also audaciously disagrees with others. Jason refused to eat unless he was forced until he was three years old. He didn't speak until he was five. He was diagnosed with severe autism. "Autism is a developmental disorder that generally appears in childhood, typically in children under three years of age. The disorder is characterized by a marked impairment in social interaction (included but not limited to an aversion to being touched, avoidance of eye contact, and an inability to judge appropriate social behavior) and delayed development of communication skills, and is often accompanied by obsessive thinking and repetitive actions, such as tapping against a table." Instead of speaking Jason would point and one of his favorite things was to constantly bang two packs of gum together. Jason was blessed with two wonderfully loving and dedicated parents. Mrs. McElwain read everything she could about autism but she modified treatment and responses successfully as she saw fit.