Do You Know Me?

March 15, 2021
Challenges continue for an autistic sixth grader as she joins her class in a weeklong end-of-year campout. Following Can You See Me? (2020) teenage author Scott and adult co-author Westcott draw upon Scott's personal experiences to portray middle schooler Tally's responses to stressful situations--both at home, where she's faced with a 12th birthday celebration, and at camp, where everything is new, including a particularly vicious mean girl. As before, the tale is told in the third person with entries from Tally's journal, in which she explains her responses to events and offers guidelines for neurotypical readers. In those entries she comes into focus as not just a mouthpiece, but a character with a distinct, individual voice. Tally is mobbed by understanding allies, including not only her parents and older sister, but a sensitive camp counselor who is in charge of a shelter for rescued pets, two fellow campers who are also neurodivergent, and a formerly trusted classmate who is sincerely remorseful about her role in a devastating incident. With their support and her own growing understanding of how to head off incipient meltdowns and to communicate her own needs clearly, Tally transforms what promises at first to be a disastrous failed experiment into a successful, memorable experience. Aside from some name cues the cast presents White. Heavy on instruction and behavior modeling, but there's a sturdy enough storyline to bear the weight. (Fiction. 9-12)

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