February 2018 Debut of the Month | In a Nutshell: All people have bubbles
You’ll smile, you’ll gasp, you’ll root for main character Martin throughout and, while it’s only January, I strongly suspect that this radiant story about relishing memorable moments and making sense of the world will remain one of my Books of the Year.
This exquisitely insightful, charming tale is all about the unforgettable voice of 16 year-old Proust-obsessed Martin, who’s in France where his mom is directing a movie. He has Asperger’s and struggles with personal pronouns. “Until I was eight years old, I called myself “you” because that's what everyone else called me, and I called other people "I" because that's what they called themselves", he explains.
Like his favoured Proust protagonist, Martin lives through memories and through his devotion to fine detail - of taste, smells, landscape and faces. So, when he meets and falls for Alice, he views her as an incarnation of his favourite Proust heroine. While Martin’s relationships with Alice and the other new kids he encounters are far from straightforward, he moves beyond his Proustian absorption in things past and enriches the lives of many others as his own world expands.
As one character realises with wry affection, Martin is “truly cool for a robot”. ~ Joanne Owen
A tender, smart, and romantic YA novel from debut author Hilary Reyl, about an autistic boy who falls in love Martin is an American teen on the autism spectrum living in France with his mom and sister for the summer. He falls for a French girl who he thinks is a real-life incarnation of a character in his favorite book. Over time Martin comes to realize she is a real person and not a character in a novel while at the same time learning that love is not out of his reach. Praise for Kids Like Us: "The most original voice since The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime tells the most radiantly human love story since Eleanor & Park. Reyl's extraordinary YA debut isn't just a book you read; this is one of those rare books that reaches in deep and writes you back." --Margaret Stolh, co-author of the #1 New York Timesand international bestseller Beautiful Creatures "Martin's childhood memories, such as his parents' early distress at his diagnosis. . . blend seamlessly into the narrative, while Martin's reflections on 'the neurodiversity movement, ' and efforts to 'cure' autism raise thought-provoking ethical questions." --Publishers Weekly, starred review "Reyl movingly captures the point of view of a person who sees the world in a completely different way. Her writing is lucid and luminous, and the first-person narrative has a cinematic quality as Martin processes the world around him. Charming, thoughtful Martin is easy to root for, and readers will cheer as he triumphs over obstacles." --Booklist, starred review "Martin's been deeply loved if not always understood, and his memories, thought processes, and discussions inspire the kinds of productive reimagining that makes calls for inclusive neurocosmopolitanism more than wishful thinking; the book's indebtedness to Proust goes beyond lyrical phrases to a thematic embrace of the slow savoring of the richness of human experience. In the end, however, it is Martin's ability to move beyond "things past" to the possibilities that open up when you accept yourself and others that gives this wise story its resonance." --The Bulletin, starred review
| Primary Genre | Young Adult Fiction |
| Recommendations: |
A tender, smart, and romantic YA novel from debut author Hilary Reyl, about an autistic boy who falls in love Martin is an American teen on the autism spectrum living in France with his mom and sister for the summer. He falls for a French girl who he thinks is a real-life incarnation of a character in his favorite book.
Kids Like Us features in the following genres: Young Adult Fiction, Debut Books of the Month, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Recommendations
Paperback. Not Available.
Kids Like Us was written by Hilary Reyl and published by Square Fish
Kids Like Us has 288 pages
