Can You See Me?

Can You See Me is a book about an autistic girl named Tally. For Tally, autism means she cannot understand expressions or sarcasm, she hates it when people order her to do things, and when they do, she often boils over and throws what we would call a tantrum, but she literally has no choice. It is called Demand avoidance. That means, if someone tells her to do something, she might know she has to do it, but if someone asks her to, then she feels like it is a demand and immediately refuses. Her five senses are also super good. that sometimes gets her in trouble though, because she gets accused of eavesdropping even though she can't help but overhear. That triggers her Demand Avoidance, and she then gets in a fight with her family.

She goes through sixth grade trying to pretend to be "normal". Her best friend Layla is the only one at the new middle school that knows of her autism, but they are slowly drifting apart, because Layla and her other friends (Lucy and Ayesha) start to get embarrassed about the way Tally acts. Tally gets bullied a lot because other kids think she is weird, and suffers through her classes (mostly P.E.) without any good friends. The really cool thing about this book is that it was written by an eleven year old girl with autism and her teacher. If you like wonder you would really love this book too!

Can You See Me? by Libby Scott, Rebecca Westcott
Grades 5-6
Genres: friendship, realistic, tear-jerker
Reviewed by Isa

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