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To celebrate Book Week in Australia, I am sharing a week’s worth of posts about #OwnVoices books, which is a concept coined in 2015 by Corrine Duyvis “to recommend kidlit about diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group.”
Other posts in this series:
- El Deafo by Cece Bell
- Wide Big World by Maxine Beneba Clarke, illustrated by Isobel Knowles
- The Little Refugee by Anh & Suzanne Do, illustrated by Bruce Whatley
- Finding Our Heart by Thomas Mayor and Blak Douglas
When Libby Scott was 10 years old, her essay “The Life of a Perfectionist,” about her life as an autistic kid, went viral online. Based on the response to that essay, Scott paired up with teacher and writer Rebecca Westcott to write a middle grades novel, Can You See Me?. Scott says, ” I like giving people information that I think will help them to understand me, and others like me, better.”
Can You See Me? is about 11 year old Tally, an autistic girl who is starting 6th grade at a new school. She has the usual fears of a pre-teen going to a new school, but Tally also worries about being able to hide her autism from her new classmates, and fit in with them. She says:
Although autism can sometimes hold me up a little in life, my parents say its a superpower, and I like to believe that. The rest of the world hasn’t caught up with us yet though, and some people seem to think that being autistic is like being a different species. Some people treat me like an alien when all I want is to be treated like any other eleven-year old.
Her parents and big sister are loving and supportive, though they don’t always understand her feelings and actions. She also has her three best friends from childhood starting the same school with her. Their interests seem to have shifted more towards boys and make-up, which hold no interest for Tally, and she struggles to participate in their conversations, though she tries. Life is made especially difficult by class bully, Luke, who goes out of his way to point out Tally’s differences.
When Tally inadvertently sets herself out of her friendship group by telling the truth to a teacher, which is seen as snitching by her friends, her already difficult school transition becomes excruciating. “Imagine,” she says, “every day having a ball of anxiety and fear knotted inside you. Now try learning algebra with all that going on.“
Her only sources of solace are a dog that her family takes in from an elderly neighbor, who everyone but Tally thinks is a problem dog, a tiger mask that lets her feel like “Tiger Girl,” and her drama teacher, Mrs. Jarman. Tally slips her secret notes about how her classroom can be more accessible, which Mrs. Jarman quietly implements. These small adjustments make the class so much easier for Tally, and seem to help many of the other students, as well.
Throughout the story, some chapters conclude with entries from Tally’s diary, in which she explains things about the way her autism manifests itself. These entries come directly from Libby Scott’s writing. As a neurotypical reader, I found it very enlightening to read her explain things like demand avoidance, meltdowns, and stimming. She includes the “pros” “cons” of these behaviors, and what it feels liker to her to do or experience them.
One of Tally’s biggest problems is trying to hide/mask her autistic behaviors, rather than being able to be herself. In one of her diaries, she says, “…the more I think about it, the more I figure that a lot of the cons of autism are not really caused by autism but by how other people react to it.” She needs accommodations, like the adaptations made by Mrs. Jarman, acceptance of her true self from her friends, and the level-headed support of her family in order to succeed in this new chapter of her life.
Admittedly, I am a few years older than the target demographic for Can You See Me?, but I found it a fantastic read. Tally is a completely honest, individual and big-hearted character, and the stakes of 6th grade acceptance felt remarkably high (I can still remember those days!). I loved her family, and the way that they adore Tally for all of her uniqueness, while sometimes struggling to balance their own needs and wants. The action moves along at a perfect pace, never dragging, while still achieving depth of characters.
Can You See Me? is definitely middle grades territory. There most mature themes are a minor boy-crush scenario and some bullying behavior. I would recommend this for about Year 4 and above – both neurotypical and neurodiverse readers – and it would also be an excellent book for educators to read.
Libby Scott is now 13 years old, and the follow up novel, Do You Know Me? will be released in Australia on November 1.
Can You See Me? is published by Scholastic UK
This review is self-funded.