Review: Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith
This is a story about what it’s like to go crazy, and it is brilliantly, masterfully crafted.
This is a story about what it’s like to go crazy, and it is brilliantly, masterfully crafted.
While Rory’s portrayal isn’t flawless, it’s well researched, and a significant step in the right direction of treating autistic characters as regular teenagers and integral parts of the cast.
This book portrays its autistic protagonist in ways that will give readers negative, incorrect, and in some cases abusive ideas about autistic people.
One of the more authentic reflections I have seen of what it can be like to grow up deaf—this is the kind of book I wish I could have had when I was younger.
Diversity in children’s literature is often represented as an either/or, without intersectionality; characters can either be autistic or gay, for example, or a wheelchair user or Black, but rarely both. Why is that?
The Categorical Universe of Candice Phee is a fun, well-written book, if an imperfect autism read.
Despite some reservations, our reviewer would recommend this contemporary novel about young Bat – and the reviewer’s ten-year-old goddaughter agrees.
Writing about characters with mental illness can be challenging in various ways. How do you accurately convey a character’s state of mind, without compromising on clarity or excitement? How do you show a character’s skewed perceptions of the world?
Paperboy is only one character’s experience of stuttering, but it’s an honest one. And in a world where so often these stories aren’t told, that comes across like a breath of fresh air.
Romanticization is a common element of mental illness narratives, including many in the YA category; what kind of message does that send?