How to Build a Hug: Temple Grandin and Her Amazing Squeeze Machine by Amy Guglielmo (review)

As a hypersensitive child who reacted adversely to many kinds of physical contact, Temple Grandin couldn’t figure out why hugging was anything people would like to do. Yet obviously they did, and as a keen observer of life around her, she began to note circumstances in which even she found comfort in touch: “Sometimes, when Temple was having a really bad day, she crawled under the sofa cushions and asked her little sister to hop on top. The smoosh of the heavy pillows felt cozy. Maybe that’s how hugs worked?” Working on a relative’s ranch later introduced her to the squeeze chute that “helped cows stay calm during vet exams,” confirming her earlier idea that sometimes pressure can be comforting and leading her to invent a cushioned model for her own use until she no longer needed it. Potter’s watercolors, though stylized and stiff, convey Grandin’s intelligence, inventiveness and social challenges, emphasizing both her intense reaction to hyperstimulation and her calm demeanor under situational control. An author’s note offers additional information on Grandin’s life and the innovative therapies deriving from her “hug machine.” Although readers interested in autism will be a prime audience, this engaging title will be well received in invention-themed reading programs as well.