Nicole Panteleakos

What a wonderful addition this will be to our grade 4/5 school library. Set in the mid 1980s, two sisters are in the foster care system. The youngest is Nova, autistic and nonverbal. Much has been learned since then, but at the time, most children with autism were thought to be unteachable. Only Bridget, Nova's sister, knows her to be smart, "a thinker, not a talker."

Nova is particularly interested in space travel, especially the upcoming Challenger launch with Christa McAuliffe on board, a teacher from their home state!

But right now, Nova and Bridget are separated. Without her sister to understand her, will anyone ever know who she is inside?… (meer)

I enjoyed this story and Nova's character immensely. I've never read a book about someone on the spectrum. Nova opened my eyes to a world of Autism I never dabbled in before. I remember seeing "special" kids in school who had their own classroom and teachers. They never mixed with the rest of us. More books like this would have helped me in understanding the autism spectrum and not feeling so awkward because I didn't know how to act around children so seemingly different from me. I loved the seamless interweaving of letters into this, dare I say epistolary, novel. With each letter I felt my hope grow and grow, waiting for Bridget to come home. The explosion of The Challenger led to an explosion of my heart when Nova ran away, right to the cross where the car accident took place that stole Bridget’s life. My heart soared when Nova finally accepted the love of her adoptive family. I was so proud when she hit her high moments and sunk low with her when she had her tough, bad moments. The author is on the spectrum, which made this novel even more authentic to me. She has Asperger’s Syndrome and teaches special education. She comes from an awareness that many people don’t have. I could not put this book down and have a bit of a book hangover from it as I write this. As a historical fiction fan, the interweaving of the historical elements behind the challenger along woth how people treated special education and special needs children was done extremley well.

Genre: Historical Fiction… (meer)