Thunderbirds are go!

Thunderbirds was a 1960s British children's series focusing on the exploits of the Tracy family and their quasi-military aid organization, International Rescue. The team uses high-tech machines to help solve big problems and basically save the world in every episode. And it's all created with scale models and marionettes. Pure genius.

FW is always interested in aircraft and any kind of complex, futuristic engineering, so I knew he would love this show. Series creator Gerry Anderson may not have Asperger Syndrome, but let's just say he's close enough. This show is a joy for anyone who loves minutiae, especially regarding aircraft and the effort to make toys act out real life adventure. It's kid safe (although it does feature no-longer-acceptable 1960s stuff like cigarette smoking, cocktail drinking, and swarthy/"foreign" bad guys), yet still has James Bond kinda stuff and fairly decent action. Some of the episodes are long on dialog and short on machines, but they're still 100 times better and more appropriate than any adventure show being made for kids today. You can buy the DVDs on Amazon, or rent them via Netflix.

Jonny Quest

FW isn't much of a TV or movie watcher. He likes documentaries like Blue Planet and Microcosmos, but other than that it's been a struggle to get him to sit and watch TV. I know what you're thinking--what kind of a crazy parent wants her kid to watch more TV? But nutty as it sounds, we think it's important to encourage FW to do things other kids his age do.

Since we wanted him to enjoy his TV watching experience, we tried to find cartoons that would hit on the things he likes: science, "freaky" creatures, cool gadgets, and airplanes. I remembered Jonny Quest from my childhood, and this has been a big hit. Netflix has the first season, which I think is all that's available at this point. It's a bit on the scary side--people get shot with guns (although there's no gore) and blown up in explosions, for example. There are also "monsters" which, as in Scooby Doo, turn out to be man-made creations. But FW loves it. I am now mining the vast catalog of 1960s and early 70s cartoons for things FW will enjoy as much as he enjoys Jonny Quest. [Note: this is the original 1960s "Jonny Quest," and not "The New Adventures of Jonny Quest" or "The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest," which came later].

The Deep Sea

We don't know exactly how FW became interested in creatures of the deep sea, but he did. This has been his primary passion for the past six or seven months, and I've had a lot of fun researching for him, feeding his interest, and learning plenty myself along the way.

We started with the DVD of the BBC production Blue Planet, which has one whole episode about the deep ocean and its freaky inhabitants. Since nothing is more frustrating for FW than a movie or book with cool pictures but no identifying info, we look for things that have a lot of science and a lot of detail. Blue Planet delivers.

After FW had watched Blue Planet about a million times, a friend tipped me off to the absolutely mind-blowing book The Deep by Claire Nouvian. We found it in our local library, but later bought a copy for ourselves. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The images are haunting and beautiful, and it all really opens your eyes to some of the phenomenal stuff going on in our natural world. The book is published by the University of Chicago Press, and their website has lots to see, and includes some cool, eerie music to go with the images.

Serendipity

I actually checked this out of the library for my younger son, who doesn't have AS but who likes tractors. Turns out it's an Aspergerific video, full of detailed, easy-to-grasp facts about antique tractors. Would be appropriate for tractor-lovers age 2 to adult.