Recently, as in about 3 days ago, I was reading through a few of the blogs I follow and one of the bloggers mentioned Netgalley, and that this was a site where she got many of her ARC books. Now, if you’re like me, I will save you the trouble and let you know that ARC means Advanced Reader Copy.
I have taught English for 9 years now. I have been good friends with every school librarian and media specialist with whom I worked, and I NEVER knew that people could get advanced copies of books. My list of already published books that I want to read is really long, so I should have just ignored this newly found information. However, the pull of new books was too much, and I had to check it out.
It is absolutely free to sign up. They are looking for people who: first, love to read, and second, have some sort of influence. Educators were among the list of people they wanted for their site. After I set up my profile, I spent about an hour looking at all the upcoming releases for this summer and fall, mainly in the young adult/teen genres. So much good stuff!
I’ve requested quite a few, but since I have no reviews my chances of getting selected are lower. I decided to look at some of the books that are available to all members, and I stumbled across Invisible Differences.
Brief Summary
The book follows Marguerite throughout her day to day life. It tells of her difficulties with people both at work and in her personal life. She gets worn out with too much interaction/noise, and she does not do well with spontaneity. Through some personal research she learns that she has Aspergers, and from there she begins to change her life.
My thoughts
First, this is a graphic novel, and I was able to finish it in about an hour. I’m not an artist at all, so I don’t feel like I can talk much about the book art except that it felt a little minimalist. I liked it; it just wasn’t very detailed.
The book is a translation from a French publication. I think the translation is good. There is still some dialogue left in French, and since I only know about 3 words in French, I couldn’t figure out exactly what it was saying. However, the context (both the art and words) makes it pretty clear about what was being said.
I really enjoyed this story. I currently work as a special education teacher, and I feel like this book would be an excellent addition to my classroom library. There are a lot of misconceptions about people with autism, although I do feel like this is getting better. However, I still come across people (and unfortunately some of them educators) who believe that all people with autism act the same way or have the same struggles. This book does a really excellent job of showing that autism is a spectrum, and that no two people with autism are the same.
I highly recommend this book for pretty much anyone since the chance that you will interact with someone with autism is pretty high. Latest estimate was that one in every 54 children are diagnosed with autism.
Michelle Reads & Writes 