Anything But Typical

Jason is a sixth-grader with autism. This means that he sometimes has trouble doing things that "neurotypicals" do naturally, such as reading people's facial expressions, handling crowds and loud noises, or coping with unstructured events. He is teased by his classmates and even by his own cousins for acting strangely, but they just don't understand the way that Jason's brain works. Jason takes some solace by writing his own stories and posting them online. It is here that he meets Phoenixbird, a girl who talks to him online about their writing. When Jason has the opportunity to attend a writing conference sponsored by the website where he posts his stories, he is excited to learn more about writing. But he is also very nervous when he learns that Phoenixbird will also be attending. How will react when she meets him in person? How will he react when he finally sees her? Will she react just as badly as his classmates when she learns of his autism? How will her reaction affect their friendship and even Jason's writing?

Jason will face all of these questions and more in the sunning story Anything But Typical by Norah Raleigh Baskin. This was a fairly quick read, but when I was finished I felt like I had been exposed to far more emotion than the books nearly 200 pages should be able to allow. The author has done an amazing job of getting inside the head of a child with autism, following his unique train of thought and making this condition accessible to those of us who know little or nothing about autism.

Anything But Typical is definitely my favorite book so far for 2009. It is a beautiful story about coping with family and friends and the desperate need that all middle-schoolers have to fit in.

Overall Grade: A+