Graphic Novel Reviews: Little Victories: Autism Through a Father’s Eyes

Little Victories is an autobiographical story about one family’s experience with an autistic child–and the highs and lows that come with such a diagnosis.

The beginning of this story is all too familiar — Mark (the narrator of the story) and his wife Chloe receives the autistic diagnosis of their son, Oliver. The family soon separates and the reader watches Mark’s view of the situation as they try to navigate their child’s autism and establish ways to help Oliver. Mark distrusts all of the guidelines and teaching tools provided by social workers and Oliver’s teachers–often doing the exact opposite of what it is that these professionals suggested.

Mark doesn’t believe in allowing Oliver to maintain easy routines, and instead shakes things up for him. They bond over silly songs, hockey, soccer, and fishing–establishing what Mark refers to as ‘traditions’. While sweet on the surface, it must be noted that Mark has no formal training regarding autism, teaching children with or without special needs, or in social work. And while some of Mark’s tactics work in Oliver’s case, it almost seems that the story is pushing that model onto other families with autistic children where that might frustrate the children (and families) more. Especially if they do not see similar results.

While this story can be taken simply as a sweet narrative of bonding for a father and son, at times Roy’s portrayal of Oliver’s autism as something he should, as he says, simply “overcome” is problematic. Especially when put into the context of getting Oliver into a “Regular” classroom, that doesn’t have, in Mark’s view—wheelchairs and classmates with “quite pronounced” disabilities, which are said to be utterly unacceptable futures–which seems to be a dated view.

This novel is best for adults and should be taken with a grain of salt, or at the very least the realization that this story and situation–while hard–is filtered through rose-colored glasses.