Kids Like Us
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5.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Martin is an American teen on the autism spectrum living in France with his mom and sister for the summer. He falls for a French girl who he thinks is a real-life incarnation of a character in his favorite book. Over time Martin comes to realize she is a real person and not a character in a novel while at the same time learning that love is not out of his reach just because he is autistic.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The original narrative voice of 16-year-old Martin drives adult author Reyl's insightful and multilayered first book for teens, which brims with nostalgia, romance, complex supporting characters, and fascinating introspection. While on location in France at his mother's latest film project, Martin, a handsome American student with autism who "could almost pass for nothing more than quirky," experiences life through his "affinity" with Proust's In Search of Lost Time , which "has filled me up like an empty glass for years." As Martin experiments with attending a general education summer school, he struggles to distinguish between events in Search and in his own life, as well as between "moths" people drawn to him because of his mother's celebrity and real friends. Martin's childhood memories, such as his parents' early distress at his diagnosis ("We thought he was so cute, and he's actually Rain Man"), blend seamlessly into the narrative, while Martin's reflections on "the neurodiversity movement," and efforts to "cure" autism raise thought-provoking ethical questions. Ages 12 up.
