Perfect Enough by Meg Eden Kuyatt
Summary: Selah is a dragon. Or at least, she feels like one. And she finally figured out how to spread her wings and soar. Armed with her sensory tools, her notebooks and poems, and her newfound knowledge about her autism, Selah is heading to writing camp for the summer. She’s excited to work on her writing, perform at the final showcase, and to meet more kids like her. Things aren’t so simple though. As soon as she arrives, she realizes that her bully from home is there too. Ezra is chaotic, attention-seeking, and always teasing her. Selah is determined not to let him ruin her summer. But soon it turns out that it’s not just Ezra causing problems. . . . As kind and enthusiastic as Selah’s new friends are, they don’t fully understand her autism and how overwhelming this new environment is for her. Friend drama, classes, overstimulation, and her relationship with Ezra all start to feel like a lot. But surely Selah can make it through just a few weeks without reaching her breaking point again . . . right?
This delightful sequel to Good Different follows Selah as she enters the brave new world of writing camp, armed with the autism diagnosis she received in the first book, and plenty of tools to help her manage sensory overwhelm. But a new environment and new friends come with lots of new challenges. Selah overcomes her negative previous impressions to become friends with Ezra, a boy from her old school. Even though they declare themselves “brain cousins” in neurodivergence, Selah soon realizes that her autism and Ezra’s ADHD express themselves in very different ways. Add to that the exciting (but sometimes overwhelming) experience of rooming with two new friends who share many of her interests but don’t understand her boundaries. (“Rumors say autistic people aren’t good at social cues,” she says, “but I don’t know where that came from because it seems to me that other people don’t get my obvious cues to leave me alone.”) The author shows Selah’s mounting frustrations with her friends and herself in lyrical verse that often incorporates the forms featured in her writing classes. (Take note, language arts teachers! This book has SO many lesson extension possibilities, many of which are included in writing prompts in the backmatter.) My favorite thing about this story is its refusal to tack on a pat happy ending; the story’s conclusion is satisfying and completely earned, and emphasizes that real progress comes in many different forms. For Selah, that is about learning to answer the question: “How do you know what’s a good or bad uncomfortable? The kind that makes you grow or makes you melt down?”
PERFECT ENOUGH is out now.
Stories By Hand with Kathy MacMillan 