This week's reading: realistic fiction! Yay! Woo Hoo!! I love reading realistic fiction- there is just something about realistic stories and realistic characters that I connect with. Realistic fiction provides readers with insight about people they can relate to and characters that might be new to them. This week's favorite: Anything But Typcial by Nora Raleigh Baskin. The book, about a young boy with austism, won the Schneider Family Book Award in 2010 and won my heart, too. Summary
In Anything But Typical, readers meet Jason, a 12 year-old boy with ASD (autistic spectrum disorder). Jason narrates Anything But Typical, illustrating for readers his 6th grade school year, the trials and tribulations that come along with being a pre-teen and the unique challenges that come with being different from his peers.
In the beginning of Anything But Typical, Jason has just started attending class with neurotypical (NTs) students all day long, without his beloved one-on-one aid. While Jason struggles to adjust at school (which is made more difficult due to his lack of friendships), Jason thrives on the computer. He doesn't talk much, but finds he can easily express himself through creative writing.
Jason has a favorite website, Storyboard, a creative writing site particularly popular with fan-fiction writers, and even posts some of his stories, too. One of Jason's pieces catches the attention of PhoenixBird. Soon, Jason and PhoenixBird (a girl!) begin sharing daily emails and Jason begins to consider her his "girlfriend."
While things are going well on Storyboard, Jason's homelife is a bit complicated. Jason's parents are loving and supportive, but also become openly frustrated with his lack of speech and his inabilty to show emotions like his brother, Jeremy. Jason knows his mom struggles with his condition and wants her to know that he loves her, but finds it difficult to communicate that to her. So, when Jason's parents surprise him with a trip to Storyboard's national convention, he is extremely happy and things just couldn't get any better. But, when Jason learns that PhoenixBird will be attending the conference and is looking forward to meeting him, Jason becomes fearful that PhoenixBird won't accept him if they meet in person.
In an honest and heart-wrenching conclusion, readers watch as PhoenixBird and Jason meet, which true to Jason's fears, doesn't go well. However, Jason's trip to the Storyboard convention doesn't end in failure; he attends an inspirational session on writing and does some special relationship building with his mom. Anything But Typcial ends as Jason and readers begin to realize Jason's disablities might not make him typical, but sometimes, it might be better to be anything but.
My thoughts
As I read Anything But Typcial, I felt like Jason and his story were real. Even though he struggles to share his feelings with his family, I could feel what he was feeling. It is a special thing when an author can communicate to readers the feelings of a fictional character and even more special when a writer can share the feelings of a child with disabilities in such a real way.
Currently, I work with two students on the autism spectrum. As I read Anything But Typical, I couldn't help but think about them. Is life as different for my two students as life is for Jason?
Even more than thinking about my two students, I thought about just how relatable Jason is for every middle school student. Every young person struggles with what they are feeling and how to communicate their feelings in one way or another, and Jason shows readers that its okay to be that way.
What have others said?
From Booklist (2009):
With stunning economy, Baskin describes Jason’s attempts to interpret body language and social expectations, revealing the extreme disconnect created by his internalization of the world around him. Despite his handicap, Jason moves through his failures and triumphs with the same depth of courage and confusion of any boy his age. His story, while neither particularly heartbreaking nor heartwarming, shows that the distinction between “normal” and “not normal” is whisper-thin but easily amplified to create the chasm between "different" and "defective." This is an enormously difficult subject, but Baskin, without dramtics or sentimentality, makes it universal. As Jason explains, there's really only one kind fo plot: "Stuff happens. That's it."
And, from School Library Journal (2009):
Some ideas for the classroom or library:While humor resonates throughout the book, the pathos of Jason's situation is never far from readers' consciousness. If only he could act on what he knows he needs to do, his life would be so much easier. Jason also shows himself to be a deep thinker and an excellent writer. Through his stories and thinly veiled fictional characters, Baskin reveals not only the obstacles that Jason faces, but also his fierce determination to be himself at all costs. Jason is a believable and empathetic character in spite of his idiosyncrasies. Baskin also does a superb job of developing his parents and younger brother as real people with real problems, bravely traversing their lives with a differently abled child without a road map, but with a great deal of love.
I haven't heard of the Schneider Family Book Award before reading Anything But Typical, but I can't wait to find out more now! The award winners would make a great display to promote in the library, especially given how our school's population of students with disabilities is growing. So often, we talk about tolerence in terms of race and ethnicity, but not in terms of special needs. Promoting books about special populations in the library will help create awareness and an appreciation for all types of unique differences.
The 5th graders usually read Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key as their first read-aloud. Anything But Typical will make a great paired text. Students can read the book independently or in literature circles. Students can compare and contrast Joey and Jason; both characters have similar stories, but Joey is presented in a much more humorous way than Jason. Even if students don't elect to read all of Anything But Typical, there are several chapters that will work well as read alouds for discussion. I'd love to see how students respond to the end of the book where Jason and PhoenixBird meet for the first time in person- the meeting would make for a great discussion topic and as an essay prompt (an especially powerful prompt would include students using the text to support thier ideas with evidence). Finally, Baskin addresses several different labels for autism in the text- all of which would make for great topics to conduct simple Internet research about.
References
Baskin, N. R. (2009). Anything but typical. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Books for Young
Readers.
Chipman, I. (2009). [Review of the book, Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh]. Booklist, 105(11), 40. Retrieved from http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2104/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewervid=4&hid=106&sid=538d7066-abe6-405c-8f84-c32852eaafa1%40sessionmgr110
Smith-D'Arezzo, W. (2009). [Review of the book, Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh]. School Library Journal, 55(3), 141. Retrieved from http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2104/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&hid=106&sid=538d7066-abe6-405c-8f84-c32852eaafa1%40sessionmgr110
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