Do You Know Me?

Gr 4-6–The follow-up novel to Can You See Me? continues the story of Tally Adams, sixth grader extraordinaire. Tally has many parts of being an almost-12-year-old autistic kid figured out. Chapters written in the third person explain Tally’s life and her days at home and school. Between chapters, readers get insight into Tally’s personal thoughts through journal entries. Tally and her class are wrapping up the school year (one that was evidently fraught with the oh-so-normal change of best friends) by attending GoCamp for a week. This is no small task for a girl who is managing her anxiety on a day-to-day, and sometimes minute-by-minute, basis. Tally’s parents and teachers assure her she will be fine at camp and can handle this, despite all of her fears. At camp, things get off to a rocky start, complete with mean girls and bullying. Fortunately, Tally perseveres and finds she has more friends than she realized and has gained a few more along the way. Tally, who is white, is very self aware and conscious of her autism; the lists she includes in her journal entries of how she would like teachers and friends to treat her are fantastic recommendations for anyone.