Jessica Puccinelli remembers the moment she felt compelled to write a book about her autistic son, Maverick.
“Back in February, we were at the playground,” she explained. “My son just turned about 2 and a half, and he was just getting to that age where other kids were starting to take an interest in him because that’s a pretty typical age for kids to want to play together.”
A little girl was curious about Maverick and first asked about his Apple tablet, an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device that allows the mostly nonverbal boy to express ideas such a yes, no, stop, more, all done, and go, among other things.
Buy the book, join the playtime
Jessica Puccinelli’s Maverick Speaks in Songs is available from amazon.com, and she and her family are part of a 65-members and growing playgroup that gathers every other Saturday at 10 a.m. at Atascadero’s Joy Playground, the county’s first fully inclusive and adaptive playground for special needs located within Colony Park (5599 Traffic Way). The group’s next meetup is Saturday, May 16.
“I’m looking to build that community in North County, and I want other parents to know that they’re not alone,” Puccinelli said. “I want other people in the community to develop that empathy and understanding for kids on the spectrum.”
“I said, ‘Oh, that’s his AAC. He uses it to talk,’ and then she was trying really hard to play with him, and he was just totally ignoring her,” Puccinelli recalled. “But she was really, really curious, and she was intent on figuring out how to play with him and how to be a friend to him, and she was following him around the park and doing what he did.
“That’s what inspired me to write the book because I wanted there to be something to help other kids understand kids like my son.”
The result is the charming children’s picture book, Maverick Speaks in Songs, which explains how Maverick’s way of communicating it different from other children. Puccinelli found that many kids don’t understand autism and have never been taught about neurodivergence or how to respond to a child with it.
Puccinelli grew up in San Mateo, lived in Atascadero for a while, and she and her family—husband Alex, son Maverick, and daughter Maddie—now live on 20 acres in Creston. She recently completed her Master of Education at Cal Poly and has 12-years’ experience teaching preschool.
“Maddie is my older girl. She’s 4 and a half and she’s autistic with with ADHD and Sensory Integration Disorder, and then Maverick is diagnosed with autism and global developmental delays,” Puccinelli explained. “When Maverick was 12 months old and we took him to his one-year checkup, we figured out that he wasn’t making all his milestones. He wasn’t pointing; he didn’t have a lot of speech.”
They were referred to the Tri-County Regional Center, which assessed Maverick and confirmed he did have some developmental delays.
“When he was about 16 months old, it was becoming a little bit more clear to us that there was something going on, so we reached out to an agency in SLO and they diagnosed him. Then about two months down the line, I was watching my daughter play, and I noticed that she also had some similarities to my son, so we ended up having her assessed. She was diagnosed after Maverick.”
‘I want other parents to know that they’re not alone. I want other people in the community to develop that empathy and understanding for kids on the spectrum.’
—author Jessica Puccinelli
Unlike Maverick, however, Maddie is high functioning and can speak.
“My son is nonverbal except for some songs that he sings. He’s what’s called a gestalt language processor, so he learns language in these big chunks,” Puccinelli explained. “He can’t answer when you ask him, ‘Do you want some chicken nuggets?’ He can’t answer you. But he can sing ‘The ABCs,’ and he can sing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,’ and he’s got a whole repertoire of songs in him. It’s really interesting.”
She added that the way that gestalt language learners develop language is a lot different from typical kids.
“He might not have functional language until he’s 6 or 7 or 8, so he uses an AAC. We’re working on that, and he’s learning some sign language. We’re working with him, trying to get that functional communication piece so that he’s able to respond.”
Puccinelli’s books are designed to help other people—kids and adults—understand these difficulties, but they’re especially aimed at kids as young as 2.
“I think that’s such an important age to teach them that there’re kids that are different from us and people that communicate differently because they start developing empathy at that age.”
Visually, her books have a retro feel like the See Spot Run books, but they’re illustrated with digitally edited photos Puccinelli took of Maverick.
“I am not a good artist,” she laughed, “but I just wanted to represent him in the best way.”
Puccinelli also wrote a book about her daughter, Maddie, called Maddie’s Magical Senses, and one about her sister, Audra, called Audra Speaks with Her Eyes, all available on amazon.com.
“Audra was my sister who was born with cerebral palsy,” Puccinelli explained. “She was nonverbal like my son. She was also in a wheelchair, but she lived an amazing life, and she was very vibrant and happy. She played softball and went to Girl Scouts. She did all these things with her tightknit group of friends. My mom did a lot to help her be included, so I wanted to write a book about her to keep her story going. She passed away when she was 11.
“I’ve kind of grown up around a lot of people with special needs, and my mom worked as an advocate for special needs kids, so it’s kind of my world. My mom was also a preschool teacher.”
Maverick Speaks in Songs is already bringing community together, letting parents of neurodivergent children now they’re not alone, and helping neurotypical kids better understand kids on the spectrum.
Credit: PHOTO COURTESY OF JESSICA PUCCINELLI
“I’ve gotten a ton of community response from it,” Puccinelli said. “I’ve gotten parents reaching out to me, saying, ‘I’ve been looking for something that represents my kid and thank you so much for doing that.’ I’ve gotten speech therapists and occupational therapists who bought the book to use in therapy practice.
“Teachers and principals and librarians have reached out, and they really appreciate that there’s something out there for kids like my son because there’s not a lot of books that are about autistic kids and especially nonverbal kids.” ∆
Contact Arts Editor Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Best of SLO County 2026.