Good different

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Good different

Title :

Good different / Meg Eden Kuyatt.

Title:

Good different

Author:

Kuyatt, Meg Eden

Format:

Books

Physical Description:

273 pages ; 21 cm

Edition:

First edition.

ISBN:

9781338816105

Production / Publication Information:

New York : Scholastic Press, 2023.

Summary:

Seventh-grader Selah Godfrey knows that to be "normal" she has to keep her feelings tightly controlled when people are around, but after hitting a fellow student, she needs to figure out just what makes her different--and why that is ok. Told in verse.

Bibliography note:

Includes bibliographical references.

Target audience note:

Ages 8-12.

Language:

English

Genre:

Psychological fiction.

Novels in verse.

Children's stories.

Subject Term:

Neurodiversity -- Juvenile fiction.

Self-actualization (Psychology) -- Juvenile fiction.

Self-perception -- Juvenile fiction.

Self-control in children -- Juvenile fiction.

Emotions -- Juvenile fiction.

Schools -- Juvenile fiction.

Self-actualization -- Fiction.

Self-perception -- Fiction.

Self-control -- Fiction.

Emotions -- Fiction.

Schools -- Fiction.

JUVENILE FICTION / Neurodiversity.

JUVENILE FICTION / Social Themes / Friendship.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Material Type	Library	Call Number	Item Barcode	Location
Book	Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library Children's Room	J KUYATT	31330009314729	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Billerica Public Library	YA/KUYATT	33934004622396	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Burlington Public Library	YA KUYATT	32116004011850	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Carlisle - Gleason Public Library	J KUYATT	32117002132680	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Chelmsford Public Library	J/FIC/KUYATT	31480011751721	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Dracut - Moses Greeley Parker Memorial Library	J/FIC/KUYATT	31482003030791	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Georgetown Peabody Library	J KUYATT	32120001455508	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Hamilton-Wenham Public Library	J KUY	30470002105103	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Haverhill Public Library	J/FIC/KUYATT	31479007616229	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Ipswich Public Library	J KUYATT	32122003079575	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Lawrence Public Library	J FIC KUY	31549005007215	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Lowell - Pollard Memorial Library	J FIC KUYATT	31481005758151	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Manchester-by-the-Sea Public Library	J FIC KUY	32124002130912	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Merrimac Public Library	J KUY	32125001498796	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Methuen - Nevins Memorial Library	J FIC KUY	31548003485597	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Middleton - Flint Public Library	J KUYATT	32126001894497	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Newbury Town Library	J KUY	32127001398653	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Newburyport Public Library	J KUYATT	32128004178910	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Newburyport Public Library	TWEEN KUYATT	32128004183936	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... North Andover - Stevens Memorial Library	J KUY	31478003812931	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Tewksbury Public Library	J FICTION KUYATT	32132003446914	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Topsfield Town Library	J KUYATT	32133002686450	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... West Newbury - G.A.R. Memorial Library	J KUY - IN VERSE	32135001596960	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Westford - J.V. Fletcher Library	MG F KUYATT	31990005281949	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A debut novel-in-verse about understanding and celebrating your own difference.

Selah knows her rules for being normal.

This means keeping her feelings locked tightly inside, despite the way they build up inside her as each school day goes on, so that she has to run to the bathroom and hide in the stall until she can calm down. Selah feels like a dragon stuck in a world of humans, but she knows how to hide it.

Until the day she explodes and hits a fellow student.

As her comfortable, familiar world crumbles around her, Selah starts to figure out more about who she is. She comes to understand that different doesn't mean damaged. Can she get her school to understand that, too, before it's too late?

A moving and unputdownable story for fans of Can You See Me and A Kind of Sparkabout a neurodivergent girl who comes to understand and celebrate her difference. An exciting new voice in children's literature "Selah is funny, insightful, and poetic in her quest to balance fitting in and staying true to herself." - Laura Shovan, co-author of Sydney Taylor Notable novel A Place at the Table

Reviews (4)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 3--7--Pien, star of television's As We See It about autistic roommates, who herself is an actor with autism, makes her audiobook debut in neurodivergent poet Kuyatt's first novel. Pien embodies Kuyatt's vulnerable verses featuring seventh-grader Selah who, despite being "the only dragon/ in a world built for people," has navigated thus far with her "Normal-person mask." Overwhelmed by unwanted touching, the resulting violent outburst makes her a "wild" threat at her once-welcoming school. Meeting others like her, discovering tools and accommodations, offers hope: "My story doesn't have to be/ Selah vs. Everything." Kuyatt earnestly reads her own author's note about being "different." Recognizing herself in a book with an autistic main character, she reveals, provided "a new perspective… everything started to make sense." VERDICT This neurodivergent trio of author, narrator, and protagonist should resonate with their shared experience and those not on the spectrum.

Publisher's Weekly Review

In Kuyatt's heartfelt debut, free verse poems explore middle school changes via the first-person viewpoint of an autistic 12-year-old. Selah Godfrey has always liked rules-oriented Pebblecreek Academy, where she knows exactly "what I'm/ supposed to do." But when she enters seventh grade, everything's different. Amid the crowded hallways, loud cafeteria, and itchy new uniforms, Selah's rules for "Being a 'Normal' Person" include resisting the urge to talk about dragons, remaining on her "Best Behavior," and otherwise masking until she can calm herself in the bathroom. When a classmate braids her hair without asking, and Selah's reaction causes a bloody nose, Selah is regarded as a social pariah and threatened with expulsion. Isolated from her peers, she takes the advice of her beloved, similarly wired grandfather and starts to write in a notebook, further finding her voice through a kind English teacher's poetry assignment. Kuyatt, who is autistic, uses candid lines to present Selah's story, conveying her mother's well-intentioned denial of Selah's needs, and Selah's own experiences, self-knowledge, and eventual self-advocacy. Selah is white. An author's note and resources conclude. Ages 8--12. Agent: Lauren Spieller, TriadaUS. (Apr.)

Kirkus Review

An autistic artist just wants to survive seventh grade. Selah, a White girl, is a "good kid," praised for her schoolwork--but inside, she's a "dragon." She can't abide noise, smells, or touches, and her mother has been extremely clear about hiding her differences in public. But her "normal-person mask" is fraying. When Selah is praised for getting an A on a test and there is loud applause, she thinks, "I want to crawl / under my desk." Eventually, Selah has a violent outburst: Now classmates and teachers treat her like a wild animal. In her notebook, Selah writes free verse about being a dragon--a metaphor for all her neurodivergent frustration with social norms. She worries that she shouldn't share her poetry ("My feelings are loud. Rude. / BIG. Sometimes / angry. Are those OK in poems?"), but the verses ultimately allow her to share her scary feelings. It's a revelation when she finds fellow neurodivergent geeks at FantasyCon. Happy, married adults use earplugs and sensory tools, wear color-coded communication bracelets, and speak calmly and without shame about their autism. Can these tools help when educators at her private school are hostile to autistic kids' needs? Can they help when even her neurodivergent mother doesn't want to recognize that Selah isn't "normal"? Through her poems, Selah believably mends her family and starts a movement in her school, showing readers ways that "different" can be wonderful. Short free-verse vignettes beautifully evoke despair, loneliness--and determination. (author's note, resources) (Verse fiction. 9-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

This beautifully written novel in verse follows one girl's journey as she learns that she's on the autism spectrum and comes to embrace herself. Seventh-grader Selah lives by her list of how to be a "Normal" person. This school year is already hard: best friend Noelle isn't in her class, her new school uniform is itchy, her homeroom teacher is loud, and her classmates think she's weird. It's exhausting for her to hold in all the bad feelings all the time. When Selah's annoying classmate Addie starts braiding Selah's hair one day without asking, Selah instinctively lashes out. She inadvertently hits Addie and gets suspended. As she learns more about her potential autism diagnosis, a supportive English teacher assures her she's not "damaged" and encourages her to express her feelings through poetry. Selah says, "I used to think / my rules could save me, make me happy, / but all I see now are the ways / they make me feel like I'm not enough." In an author's note, Kuyatt describes her own autism diagnosis, discusses masking and the degree to which the disorder is especially misdiagnosed in girls, and provides a list of resources and tools for autistic kids and their parents and educators. Ultimately, readers will empathize with Selah and rejoice with her as she learns to accept herself as she is.

Excerpts

I ran, locked myself in one of the changing stalls. Mom banged on the door but I balled up on the dirty tile floor and cried and hyperventilated till my head stopped spinning and my eyes dried enough for me to see. But when I calmed down, Mom said, "Selah Godfrey, never ever cry in the middle of a store. Always hold it in till you make it back to the car." That became the first rule for my list on how to be a Normal person. Excerpted from Good Different by Meg Eden Kuyatt All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.