The Treasure-Hunt Friends Discover Autistic Trends

The Treasure-Hunt Friends Discover Autistic Trends is the fourth book in author Brenda Darnley Martin’s Treasure-Hunt Fish picture-book series, promoting positive life lessons to children. In this book, Freddie, Hector, and Tish meet Adam, who is autistic, when they visit their friend, the Carrie Lee, a sunken ship in Old Tampa Bay. Despite the fact that Adam cannot speak, they have a wonderful time playing together, become fast friends, and decide that they will regularly include him in their daily adventures. The message of this book, like the others in the Treasure-Hunt Fish picture-book series, is that life’s greatest treasures are friendship, diversity and positive self-esteem. Understanding and including autistic children is of tremendous importance to both the author and the illustrator, who have close family members with the disease. Their hope is that this book will help young non-autistic children develop tolerance and acceptance of those who are.