Just Shy of Ordinary

Stars in Their Eyes

Just Like Me

Call Me Max

Show Us Who You Are

Barakah Beats

The Secret Battle of Evan Pao

The Many Masks of Andy Zhou

A novel about a neurodivergent thirteen-year-old navigating changing friendships, a school trip, and expanding horizons.

Thirteen-year-old Ellen Katz feels most comfortable when her life is well planned out and people fit neatly into her predefined categories. She attends temple with Abba and Mom every Friday and Saturday. Ellen only gets crushes on girls, never boys, and she knows she can always rely on her best-and-only friend, Laurel, to help navigate social situations at their private Georgia middle school.

Laurel has always made Ellen feel like being autistic is no big deal. But lately, Laurel has started making more friends, and cancelling more weekend plans with Ellen than she keeps. A school trip to Barcelona seems like the perfect place for Ellen to get their friendship back on track.  Except it doesn't.

Toss in a new nonbinary classmate whose identity has Ellen questioning her very binary way of seeing the world, homesickness, a scavenger hunt-style team project that takes the students through Barcelona to learn about Spanish culture and this trip is anything but what Ellen planned.

Making new friends and letting go of old ones is never easy, but Ellen might just find a comfortable new place for herself if she can learn to embrace the fact that life doesn't always stick to a planned itinerary.

Discover Your Child's Next Read

Just Shy of Ordinary

A. J. Sass, 2024

Stars in Their Eyes

Jessica Walton, Aśka, 2021

Just Like Me

J Tillman, 2016

Call Me Max

Luciano Lozano, Kyle Lukoff, 2019

Show Us Who You Are

Elle Mcnicoll, 2021

Barakah Beats

Maleeha Siddiqui, 2021

The Secret Battle of Evan Pao

Wendy Wan-Long Shang, 2022

The Many Masks of Andy Zhou

Jack Cheng, 2023