Sarah Kapit

Summary
Vivy Cohen is an 11-year-old autistic girl, who has been interested in being a knuckleball pitch since she met an MLB professional on a school field trip. She starts writing letters to that baseball player, and soon he starts to respond! The book is written in back and forth letters between Vivy and the MLB player. While writing letters, she starts playing on a little league team. The friendship and advice between the professional player and girl through her personal setbacks and his professional challenges are heartwarming.

Review
I love a book in letter form. The letters are endearing. They really show the emotional and social challenges of some learners. The challenges Vivy faces will resonate with different kids in different ways. For example, she has many social challenges with friends and teammates. She can be very stubborn and persistent, especially when things are not going her way!
This book has been particularly popular at my school with young female athletes. Many of the girls have enjoyed learning about the struggles Vivy has on her team. Being on a team sport, no matter if you have autism or not, has its ups and downs. Through her challenges and perseverance you can’t help, but love her! This is definitely in my top for the Intermediate Nutmegs this year!… (más)

Told from alternating perspectives - Maddie and Chloe - and different time periods ("now" is at Camp Rosewood, "then" is the time period around their school musical the previous spring), Second Chance Summer is the story of a friendship between two very different girls who have been friends for a long time, but a fight has ruptured their friendship, and they are not pleased to discover they are not only camp-mates, but cabin-mates. Maddie - short, fat, Jewish, with dyspraxia - is looking forward to the camp's screenwriting program, having sworn off public performance after the school musical. Chloe - tall, slender, red-haired - is a child actor with a pushy mom who just made her do a commercial for a pill for period cramps. Chloe has her heart set on the role of Elphaba in the camp musical of Wicked, and Maddie is once again forced into the musical when the screenwriting program is reduced.

Maddie must learn how to speak up for herself, even to her best friend, and that what she wants is respect, not revenge. Chloe must learn how to be a better friend, and how to stand up to her mother (the result of this is somewhat anti-climactic, with her mother agreeing immediately to Chloe's desire to stop acting professionally).

See also: The Chance to Fly by Ali Stroker

Quotes

That's the thing about Chloe. Somehow, by the sheer force of her Chloe-ness, she gets me to consider things I'd never even think about if not for her putting the idea in my head. (Maddie, 67)

"Sometimes when you're given a set of constraints, your creativity can really thrive." (Hannah, 82)

This whole dealing-with-other-people's-emotions issue is so not my thing. (Chloe, 127)

"I'm done being the supporting character in the movie of your life." (Maddie to Chloe, 131)

...the past doesn't actually go away. It just kind of lurks around, popping up when I least want to or expect it to make an appearance. Poisoning everything. (Chloe, 194)

The script of the universe always plops me into the same scene as Chloe. (226)

When I'm her friend, the screenplay of my life is usually more exciting, more fun, more everything. (227)… (más)

12 YO Lara starts a detective agency and her younger sister Caroline starts middle school -- and this is another book with a ton of things going. For starters, both sisters are autistic in different ways. Their father has ADHD and periodic bouts of depression. Caroline uses a tablet to communicate and Lara is worried that she will experience bullying in the new school. Caroline is frustrated that no one seems to think she's capable of managing big change and maybe even causing trouble. There's a cousin, Aviva, and her mother living with the family and Lara definitely has some jealousy issues, Also an older brother, Noah, questioning what he wants to do in life and a younger brother, Benny, who's a mad maker genius and Ima, keeping things together. They have both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Judaism in the family. There are new friends and interests, and Lara is learning that getting into other people's business comes with dangers and sorrows. It's a complex, interesting story, and one of the only ones I've read with a neurodivergent protagonist where being capable of making bad decisions is valued as an important of a step into independence -- as it should be. Great characters living their best lives.… (más)