She touches on the loneliness of not knowing who you really are when you mask, and that is so relatable. As a result it’s difficult to see some of the reviews about Tally being a brat and wondering if that’s how people will see you if this is their representation of Autism in girls.

I'm looking forward to my daughter learning to read better as I will be saving this for her and I think she will really enjoy this and can relate so much. She loves to draw – and is good at it too – and has a best friend, Brianna, but her crippling shyness makes school and interacting with, well, anyone, really scary. Other then that it was a lovely book to help understand PDA from a child's point of view and a lovely story about how hard school is for any child and the extra difficulties of a girl with Autism as they are so different to how boys display.Reading this book with year 6 children may be useful in the preparation to moving to secondary school, showing that although they may be feeling frightened, this is normal and lots of other children will be feeling the same. I could understand that given the fact I found myself getting confused at events too - such as wanting to lecture Layla on why the fairground ride isn’t scary when everyone always expects Tally to behave the way neurotypicals do.

It was very well written, and knowing that it was co-authored by a young girl with autism who based the main character off of herself gave it some extra gravitas for sure. We also completely brush over the fact Nell made some really nasty comments like Tally being "broken" - and considering this is an internal struggle I have often dealt with to not see that really get properly addressed was heartbreaking. Her mum is an early years consultant, trainer and conference speaker who previously worked for the London Borough of Lewisham as a School Improvement Advisor for Early Years and a Strategic Lead for Early Years. but I do think the authors' intentions were to give people pause and make them think a little deeper about the subject, and I did do that. It made me feel seen, and it contributed to my reflections about what life was like for me at twelve years old and how profoundly grateful I am that things are completely different now.

New people, new routines, bells, shouting, clusters and communes of people, and whole realms of expectations. I haven't charted out my visits for the summer term, but I'm sure there are several in the south) and thanks so much for being so fantastic! And if there are people in careers like teaching who get more understanding of Autistic students through media like this that is even better - because you can see that the kindness of a teacher like Mrs Jarman in this novel can be a like a life float in a nightmare environment like school.

The masking she refers to doing at school has been a lifelong struggle and is something I’ve had to push into almost every bubble of my life. We are even urged to intervene in her family dynamic so that her father accepts and understands her more convincingly. The explanations we do get for Autistic traits were quite shallow and I did have to remind myself constantly throughout this that our narrative perspective is from an 11 year old girl and this was co-authored by someone of a similar age.But also most kids make stupid decisions at that age and say or do things that make no sense, which is why if we are reading this as adults we need to be more careful about projecting our perspective onto it. Highly recommend for kids (especially girls) with autism, parents of autistic children, and kids with autistic friends. I wonder if there were more representation like this 15 years ago if kids who read it would be more empathetic towards peers with extra struggles to contend with. I’ll start with the negatives because I want to end on the stuff I liked (warning of some spoilers ahead for anyone in my circle who’s thinking of reading this). The diary entries mainly focus on charting her anxiety levels and explaining terms and concepts related to autism, often breaking them down into pros and cons.