Ellen Outside the Lines

De: A. J. Sass

Narrado por: Emma Galvin

Rain Reign meets Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World in this heartfelt novel about a neurodivergent 13-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.

©2022 A. J. Sass (P)2022 Little, Brown Young Readers

Reseñas de la Crítica

"The story’s beautiful locales and scavenger hunt puzzles frame a heartwarming story about a transitional period in life, conveyed alongside an affirming, incidental portrayal of Ellen’s experiences." (Publishers Weekly)

An interesting story.

Ellen is autistic and has to attend a trip to Spain with her Spanish class. This means flying on an airplane, staying in a hotel, and making new friends instead of being with her best friend the whole trip likes she hopes.

All of the kids face questions about themselves, some become more truthful about who they are, there are misunderstandings, and Ellen spends part of the trip confused and alone.

But she learns many things about the world, others, and most of all friendship. I enjoyed this book.

It was great

I would suggest reading this book. It brings an amazing setting and story and a perfect amount of drama. I would suggest reading this review even if its just half of your attention.

horrible

Thank goodness I listened to this first. I would never let my child read this book.