My Little Orko

Jolene is a young 6-year-old girl who is diagnosed with autism. Her mum is truly understanding, as is the rest of her family, but at primary school she gets bullied a lot by her friends. The only comfort she has in her life are her special interests: her He Man & The Masters Of The Universe action figures and the He Man series airing on the then-new Toonami channel (well, it is 2003 after all). One day while she and her mum are walking home from school, Jolene encounters a cardboard box with a little wizard sitting inside, crying and shivering. With her Mum's kind permission, the girl decides to take the wizard home. Finding out his name is Orko and seeing his face is in shadow doesn't harm Jolene a bit, as she spends all her days playing with her new family member and sharing in every moment with her. But the moment they move to a new home and start unpacking, Jolene catches Orko seeing something wrong with his life in Eternia on screen...

My Little Nutty

During a dentist appointment, a young 24 year old woman with downs syndrome named Lori discovers that too much candy and soda causes her teeth to erode, so she has to live off them. Now living on balanced meals and water, Lori tries to calm her worries by watching her favourite show, Happy Tree Friends, on DVD as much as she can. One day, she finds a baby green squirrel wearing candy and screaming in sadness. She realises it must be Nutty and takes him in as her own. She then realises that according to the note, she has to feed Nutty candy as part of his regular diet, but has to hide Nutty's diet from others, including her dentist, in case they get very angry with her.

My Little Furaha

Orko lives all alone in a little house in the countryside. He does all the cooking and cleaning, but is so bored he never has any time to have some fun or play like he used to. Every day he would flick through his photo album of all the fun he had with his parents...but due to all the bullying received from Prince Adam and his friends, he never got the chance to cut loose. One day, he finds a baby lioness cub abandoned outside his doorstep and decides to raise her as her own, calling her 'Furaha', a Swahili word for 'Happiness'. Immediately he abandons his chores and goes all out to take care of his little friend, talking, laughing, playing and being like a little family, under one sheltered blossom tree.

Cocoon

An Australian man who once did the illustrations for the most famous manga in the country loses his job due to one of his co-workers having an accident, and spends all time at home watching anime, particularly Transformers Cybertron and Dragon Ball Z. One fateful day while out for a walk, he comes across a red light in the hallway. Trying to see who it is, he finds a very young Jetfire sitting alone, crying. The manga illustrator decides to take him in and at first uses him to make his own manga, but then decides to teach him how to become a manga artist and embrace the term, 'Be a lover, not a fighter'.

Rarity's Wish Wash

Rarity lives with her human mother in a little house in the countryside, where she feels most at home and has abandoned making dresses to be a countryside girl. One day, it's bathtime, and her mother chases Rarity around the house when she cheekily refuses to have a bath, ending with Rarity grumpily obliging to do so.

My Christmas With The Mane 6

A young autistic girl whose special interest happens to be My Little Pony lives with Princess Celestia and the Mane 6 fillies in an apartment in London. On Christmas Eve, she prepares for Santa's arrival with her family, and then snuggles with her six filly friends in bed, hoping Father Christmas would soon be here. The next morning, they race downstairs to see what Father Christmas had brought them, since they were all good little girls.

My Little Captain Scarlet

A long-time action figure collector feels depressed after splitting up with his abusive girlfriend, who at first seemed interested in what he collects but has soon grown tired of it. His life changes however, when he finds a young marionette puppet boy called Scarlet in a cardboard box outside the local comic book store. Throwing a rock at him, he realises he is indestructible and decides to take him in. As Scarlet grows into an adult, he comes to realise the truth behind why he was left in the real world in the first place.

Football Head Dad

A retired football player finds a new lease on life when he adopts and raises Nickelodeon favourite Arnold to be his own son. Soon, a strong bond develops between the two, though the man finds Arnold strange at first, they soon grow to love each other. When Arnold reaches the exact age he was in the TV series, he decides to do something extraordinary to save his dad's mortgage from worsening.

My Little Furaha & Orko

The year is 2002. A 24 year old autistic woman is obsessed with watching He Man and The Lion King since she is always bullied by her so-called friends, except her best friend Loris, when at the local Youth Hub. When the 2002 He Man came out, she was over the moon, and Orko instantly became her favourite character. One day, a four year old Orko and a baby lioness cub named Furaha end up at her doorstep, with a note telling to April, our young woman character, to take care of them. As she forms a strong bond with them, she becomes honest about Orko's magic and why he's made for Furaha, but hides everything from them when she watches them in private. When the truth is suddenly revealed, Orko is shocked and distraught. Will April make amends to him and find some way to help him and his lioness cub sister with finding refuge from the cartoons?

The Autumn That Once Was...

Based on YTV in October 2002.

It's Autumn, and the days are getting colder, darker and wetter. Furaha and Orko spend their days dressing up in colourful costumes, performing pretend 'candy rituals' and admiring themselves in the mirror.

What You Can Learn From Your Interests, My Interests

So recently this simplistic book about sharing interests came to my doorstep last night alongside an Inside Out 2 activity book, and Mum and I shared the book together. As well as completing the Inside Out book, I shared the Your Interests book with Mum. It's important to learn from the book that other people don't have the same interests as you, so getting to know what their interests are and going out of your comfort zone can inspire you quite a bit. Here's a scenario to help you:

Zippy is into toy racecars, while Bungle and George are into parachute games. Zippy wants them to stop their game and look at his racecars, but unfortunately, Geoffrey has a suggestion: have Bungle and George play with his toy cars for a while, and then let Zippy join in their parachute game. And so, the two games continue. Thanks, Geoffrey!

By joining in with other's games and finding out about their interests, you could be an individual at finding out other people's speciality, while embracing your own. For example, mine are nostalgic cartoons and storywriting, while you might say another of my friends might be into toy cars or baking. And that's okay, people have special interests, and that's what makes them different from all the people you know in your life. That's what makes each and every one of us different.

This book will really help me cope with life in a special and less exhausting way. I am so special, I deserve this book.

THANKS, GRATEFUL GODDESSES!

No, wait...I must thank me. I'm the one who bought them.

Vote - Which One Of My Interests Do You Like?

My Special Interests

I cordially invite you to fill in this form and celebrate the joy of special interests!

A Day At The Park

Furaha and Orko spend a day having fun together at the playground, playing on the swings, slide and seesaw. When Furaha spins round on the roundabout, she begins to feel sick from the speed and takes a little break before Orko suggests they go on the carousel in the middle of the park.