This is a complex book.  It’s not a light read.  It can serve readers who read for a variety of purposes, and for the right audiences it would be worthy of a “Highly Recommended” rating.  It is a picture book biography of an artist (James Castle) who was unknown to me, but is apparently well-known in certain artistic circles.  As such it would be well-suited to students of art.  It rather starkly tells of the horrific treatment he received, growing up in the early part of the twentieth century, before society knew much about how to meet the needs of special-needs children: deaf, mute, autistic, and quite likely dyslexic, he was deemed uneducable and neglected and isolated, yet still managed to develop his own art.  As such it is a useful tale for students of history and education and the social sciences.  Some things contribute to it being a bit of a confusing read:  it opens with the voice of James’ nephew using the first person to tell the reader he’d like to introduce his uncle, and since the book is written by Allen Say, it begins by giving the reader the faulty sense that James is Allen’s uncle.  Also, since it is an illustrated biography of an artist, the reader is left a bit unsure whether any of the artwork included is that of the subject, or if it’s all the illustrator’s, emulating the style of the subject?