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Gr 4-7 Baskin writes in the voice of a high-functioning boy who identifies himself as having numerous disorders, most with labels that appear as alphabet soup. In the third grade, after yet another battery of tests, Jason receives the diagnosis of autism. Now in sixth grade, he relates how he does not fit in, even though he tries to follow the instructions of his therapists and helpers. He labels the rest of his classmates and teacher...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Baskin sets herself a difficult challenge by making her narrator both an aspiring writer and autistic, seemingly more severely so than, for instance, Ted in Siobhan Dowd's London Eye Mystery. Sixth-grader Jason is being mainstreamed this year (forgoing his one-on-one classroom aide), and sometimes the noises, smells, and interpersonal demands overwhelm him. One of his greatest comforts is the website Storyboard, where he posts a story about a dwarf considering a tre...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Autistic sixth grader Jason is an aspiring writer who takes comfort in Storyboard, a story-sharing website. One of his tales attracts positive...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Anything but Typical is a funny, warm, and realistic celebration of the differences among people—and in Jason’s particular case, how his differences form his outlook and ultimately his writing. Since Jason has a disorder that affects the way he understands and processes social cues, Nora Raleigh Baskin has the difficult task of presenting the story from Jason’s point of view while still making it accessible to those whom Jason would label “neurotypical.” She handles this smoothly by making Jason an immensely likable, ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More