Selah is a dragon.
Or at least, she feels like one. And she finally figured out how to spread her wings and soar.
Armed with her sensory tools, her notebooks and poems, and her newfound knowledge about her autism, Selah is heading to writing camp for the summer. She’s excited to work on her writing, perform at the final showcase, and meet more kids like her.
Things aren’t so simple, though. As soon as she arrives, she realizes that her bully from home is there too. Ezra is chaotic, attention-seeking, and always teasing her.
Selah is determined not to let him ruin her summer. But soon it turns out that it’s not just Ezra causing problems. As kind and enthusiastic as Selah’s new friends are, they don’t fully understand her autism and how overwhelming this new environment is for her.
Friend drama, classes, overstimulation, and her relationship with Ezra all start to feel like a lot. But surely Selah can make it through just a few weeks without reaching her breaking point again . . . right?
I couldn’t relate to Selah wanting to go to a three-week sleep-away camp. This is something I would NEVER do, even as an adult, let alone as a middle schooler. I barely made it through a mandatory two-day school camp trip in fourth grade. I WOULD NOT have been away from home for three weeks without having some form of a meltdown.
This was a difficult book for me to read. I got so much second-hand anxiety reading about Selah’s experiences. Poor girl was stretching herself way too far. She slowly starts to learn to listen to her body and to know when to stop before she reaches her breaking point. I wish I had had a chance to learn this earlier in life.
Throughout the story, Selah tells others and herself that she’s fine when she clearly is not. We are all guilty of doing this. The true meaning of the word ‘fine’ can be explained with this quote from the TV show, 2 Broke Girls: Fine doesn’t mean fine. The scale goes: great, good, OK, not OK, I hate you, fine.
There are plenty of lessons for neurotypicals to take away from this story. For example:
- If an autistic person tells you they are tired and want to leave, let them.
- If an autistic person tells you it’s too loud, be a decent human being and turn it down.
- If an autistic person tells you the lights are too bright, turn the lights off or let them wear sunglasses.
Bottom line, if an autistic person asks you to do something, do it. Don’t laugh at us. It takes a lot of bravery to speak up for ourselves. WE ARE NOT JOKING!
I am not qualified to talk about friend drama, so I will not get into that. I will say that I understand why Selah had a hard time telling her friends about her struggles. She feared bothering them with her problems and them getting angry at her.
Bit of a spoiler ahead: Selah ends up befriending Ezra, the boy from her school who wasn’t nice to her. Turns out, he’s not an attention-seeking jerk. He has ADHD. In Ezra’s words, they’re ‘brain cousins’.
Here are a few snippets of Selah’s poems that I liked the most:
In my dream world, interacting with people wouldn’t feel like a puzzle set on the highest difficulty level.
Autism is a double-edged sword. It has good and hard in the same package. If you only look at it from one side, you miss the person in the middle of it all.
Why is it that things other people say are easy and obvious feel so hard – and not obvious – for me?
Some things are hard to understand if you aren’t living it.
I don’t have to wait ‘til I’m breaking ‘til I hurting to take care of myself.
Why can I do one thing one day and not the other? How is it the same thing can be fun sometimes but a nightmare at others?
Overall, I’m so happy books like this are being written so neurodivergent kids can see themselves and learn to face their own challenges.
Be sure to read the Author’s Note, Mr. Yi’s Poetry Prompts, Rheya’s Manga Library, and ADHD Resources at the end of the book.