Forget Me Not
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A heartfelt story of friendship, acceptance, and staying true to yourself
Calliope June loves astronomy, but she sometimes makes faces or noises that she doesn't mean to make due to her Tourette syndrome. When she and her mother move yet again, Calliope tries to hide her TS. But the kids at her new school soon realize she's different. Only Calliope's neighbor, the popular student body president, sees her as she truly is—an interesting person and a good friend. But is he brave enough to take their friendship public?
As Calliope navigates school, she must also face her mother's new relationship and the possibility of moving again, just as she starts to make friends and accept her differences.
In her affecting debut novel, author Ellie Terry crafts an authentic and relatable story told in verse, speaking to a wide audience about being true to oneself. Forget Me Not is a moving tale of self-acceptance, friendship, and embracing neurodiversity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Terry's debut novel thoughtfully traces the fragile emotions of two seventh graders: Calliope, a girl painfully self-conscious about having Tourette syndrome, and Jinsong, a popular boy she meets in her new town. Calliope is tired of moving every time her mother "breaks up/ with one of her crazy boyfriends." Having just settled in St. George, Utah, she's glad to make friends with Jinsong, who lives in her apartment complex. But Jinsong begins distancing himself from Calliope when her uncontrollable impulses become more prominent and she becomes the target of cruel jokes at school. "Sometimes my tics/ are like gentle whispers,/ asking me to do things,/ to say things.... But other times they're like a/ SHOUT!/ Jumping out so loud and strong/ I could never hope to/ stop them," she explains. Meanwhile, Jinsong is torn between standing up for Calliope and preserving his status. Terry, who has Tourette syndrome herself, offers enormous insight into an often-misunderstood condition, writing in verse for Calliope's chapters and prose for Jinsong's. Her poetic explorations of Calliope's anxiety and Jinsong's moral struggles are honest and moving. Ages 10 13.
