ALLIE'S ADVENTURE ON THE WONDER

In Adams’ YA novel, a teen faces misunderstandings and challenges due to auditory processing disorder (APD).

Fourteen-year-old Allie Little doesn’t have it easy. She was diagnosed with APD as a young child and struggles with managing everyday tasks, her classes, and social situations, due in part to her difficulties understanding speech. She works with a speech therapist and special education advisor, Mrs. Dutchison, but she has no friends at school; instead, her classmates frequently bully her—particularly the Decker sisters: Queenie, Asa, and Jackie. Her English teacher, Mrs. Heartred, belittles her disability and openly resents the accommodations she needs to make in her classroom, such as speaking into a microphone. Allie’s home life isn’t much better; her parents are divorced and her father lives in another city, so Allie only sees him every few months. Her mother, a charge nurse for an at-home healthcare agency, is constantly preoccupied with work and always seems to be frustrated by Allie’s APD, even though she may have some similar challenges. Allie is a talented artist and has an active imagination, but she lacks confidence. When she goes on a field trip aboard a ferry called the Wonder, she encounters a mysterious British amateur photographer named Charlie Carroll who, despite some apparent cognitive differences of his own, exudes confidence and joy—and may help Allie to find self-acceptance. Over the course of this novel, Adams weaves an intriguing, character-driven tale. Allie serves as the story’s narrator, so readers effectively experience events as she perceives them. It’s a reality that’s sometimes disorienting and chaotic, with surreal elements. The Decker sisters and Mrs. Heartred feel like exaggerated caricatures; however, this is exactly how a bullied child might see their adversaries. Allie is a compelling and well-developed character, and readers will appreciate Adams’ complex and compassionate portrayal of ADP, as well as the many allusions to Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865).

A compelling story of a neurodivergent protagonist.