Recommended for readers with autism who will feel genuinely seen and for those desiring to see others more clearly.
A girl with autism confronts the terrors of sixth grade.
Eleven-year-old Tally is fierce, brave, funny, and kind; but she also wants desperately to fit in, so she keeps her autism secret from her new classmates at Kingswood Academy. But the harder she tries to act “normal,” the more the bullies call her “weirdo” until even her friends start to pull away. Tally’s story—based on Scott (herself 11 and autistic) and co-written with the neurotypical Westcott—shines with authenticity. Even the lengthy “Autism Facts” in Tally’s interspersed diary entries avoid didacticism via their un-self-conscious honesty. The deceptively simple prose sticks tightly to Tally’s point of view, conveying her courage and quirky charm while rendering with painful acuity her struggles with anxiety and sensory overload. It also portrays compassionately the sometimes-stressful effects of her particular needs and odd-seeming behaviors on her loving, supportive family. There are no villains here: Her teachers are (mostly) receptive and sympathetic, and even the bullies come off as more clueless than cruel. Nor is there any magic resolution: Tally’s situation may improve but only at the cost of her privacy; and her social relationships remain tentative. Instead, her triumph comes in her resolve to present as her own unique, different “normal.”
Recommended for readers with autism who will feel genuinely seen and for those desiring to see others more clearly. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-60891-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...
The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.
Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 1, 1989
ISBN: 0547577095
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989
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