Good Different

by Meg Eden Kuyatt Narrated by Sue Ann Pien

Overview

A extraordinary novel-in-verse for fans of Starfish and A Kind of Spark about a neurodivergent girl who comes to understand and celebrate her difference.

Selah knows her rules for being normal.

She always, always sticks to them. 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. So that she has to tear off her normal-person mask the second she gets home from school, and listen to her favorite pop song on repeat, trying to recharge. 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.

Selah's friends pull away from her, her school threatens expulsion, and her comfortable, familiar world starts to crumble.

But as 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?

This is a moving and unputdownable story about learning to celebrate the things that make us different. Good Different is the perfect next read for fans of Counting by 7s or Jasmine Warga.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Praise for Good Different:

A Junior Library Guild Selection

A School Library Journal Best Book

A Bank Street Best Book of the Year

A Schneider Family Book Award Honor Book

Chicago Public Library Best Fiction for Older Readers

ALSC Notable Children’s Book

ILA Notable Book

"The next Wonder. Good Different should be required reading." — Good Morning America

★ “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. Readers will rejoice with Selah as she learns to accept herself as she is.” — Booklist, starred review

★ “Heartfelt. Kuyatt uses candid lines to present Selah’s own experiences, self-knowledge, and eventual self-advocacy.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

"This moving new novel in verse will build empathy among neurotypical kids for the challenges their autistic peers face, and help autistic kids discover the power of their own voices. Highly recommended." — A Mighty Girl

"Here's a book that throws that dumb stereotype of the stoic autistic experience out the window — it's full of deep feelings and soul-searching and is just an absolute joy." — Common Sense Media

"A beautiful story about family relationships, support, and how to communicate with people you love but can’t completely relate to." — Child Mind Institute

"A brilliant, deeply moving, and redemptive novel about neurodiversity and living on the spectrum." — The Reading Eagle

“Relatable, profound and beautifully heartfelt. I loved it.” — Elle McNicoll, author of the Schneider Family Book Award Honor-winning A Kind of Spark

"A powerful addition to literature about the autism experience. 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

"Meg Eden Kuyatt portrays the experience of being an autistic girl with authenticity and heart. Her beautiful verse paints a vivid picture of the challenges and the joys of being autistic. Selah is a hero that readers will root for and remember." — Sarah Kapit, author of Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen!

"Throughout Good Different, Selah learns it's okay to stand up and it's okay to stand out. Meg Kuyatt's powerful debut finds Selah answering the age-old question: Why be normal when you can soar like a dragon?" — Eric Bell, author of Alan Cole Is not a Coward

Kirkus Reviews

2023-02-08
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)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159765505
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	04/04/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

Read an Excerpt

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.

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