2024 NATIONAL MEDAL
for Museum and Library Service Finalist

Fiction

Can you See Me?

Eleven-year-old Tally is starting sixth grade at Kingswood Academy and she really wants to fit in, which means somehow hiding her autism, hypersensitivity to touch, and true self, and trying to act "normal" like her former best friend, Layla, who is distancing herself from Tally, and her fourteen-year-old sister, Nell, who is always angry with Tally for being different; but as she records her thoughts and anxieties in her coping diary, Tally begins to wonder--what is "normal" anyway?

Do You Know Me?

Tally Olivia Adams is a twelve-year-old (just) autistic girl faced with the prospect of a week-long end-of-the-year class trip, which worries her, because there will be "teams" and "activities" and "competition" all of which terrifies her, especially whenshe finds out she is not bunking with her friend Aleksandra; the other girls on her team are often nasty, especially Skye--and Tally needs all the life-skills she has learned to cope with and expose the bully, and maybe make some friends along the way.

Al Capone Does My Shirts

When Moose’s family moves to Alcatraz so his father can work as a guard and his sister can attend a special school in San Francisco, Moose has to leave his friends and his winning baseball team behind. But it’s worth it, right? If his sister, Natalie, can finally get help, maybe his family will finally be normal.  But as it turns out, life on Alcatraz is much more complicated than even Moose would have predicted.  His dad is so busy, he’s never around.

How to Speak Dolphin

Since her mother died, twelve-year-old Lily has struggled to care for her severely autistic half-brother, Adam, in their Miami home, but she is frustrated and angry because her oncologist step-father, Don, expects her to devote her time to Adam, and is unwilling to admit that Adam needs professional help. When Adam bonds with a young dolphin with cancer Lily is confronted with another dilemma: should her family's happiness take precedence over the dolphin's need for freedom?

Maya Plays the Part

Maya lives and breathes musicals. When her chance to finally be a part of the summer musical program at the community theater comes up, Maya is convinced she will get the lead. After all, who knows The Drowsy Chaperone better than she does? However, things don't turn out exactly the way Maya's planned, and the summer turns out to be jam-packed with problems: dealing with her best friend's move, her parents' busy jobs, and—since her autism diagnosis—the ongoing puzzle of how to be Maya in Public.