And yes, the book does tell you what it's like for Tally to live with autism but it didn't persuade me that she is any more important than anyone else because of it. It was so accurate, and even though Tally's triggers were different than mine, I cannot even imagine what an overwhelming comfort it would have been if I could have read something like this when I was twelve. The book was interesting but I think they should have put someone else's point of view in it, like wonder.

When she starts her new school, everything is very big and overwhelming and she has to find ways to hide her autism, but what if she doesn't have to? Enter Rupert, the neighbor's three-legged dog, who is staying with the family (against her mother’s wishes) while his owner is in the hospital. I started to read this last year but had to stop as it was all too near to the bone: we were filling in a 19 page form about one of my daughters to start the assessment process. However, I deeply identify with Tally's high sensitivity to stimulation and agitation over it, her obsessive-compulsive tendencies, some of her tics, and her constant stress over trying to find some way to appear at least semi-normal, or at least normal enough to fly under the radar.When I was twelve, I viewed myself with rage and loathing, but looking back, I understand the things that I was going through and love myself in retrospect, not because I have forgotten about how atrociously awful I was at times, but because I see that I had dignity and value anyway. One thing Tally had that I did not have was the knowledge that she is autistic, she knew - I wish I had known and I wish I had books like this when I was that age. Are the authors saying it would have been acceptable from him if it was directed at a kid who didn't yet have a diagnosis?

And then there’s Luke, the bully, who makes her life miserable at school with all his nasty comments. I picked this up thinking it would be an insightful read as my 11 year old, with autism, starts high school next month. The idea of featuring autistic characters in fiction is a good one, and I think it's a great idea to help people understand what it's like to live with autism. However, we are now a little further down the road and I suppose I am more accepting and more than ready to understand my daughter in any way I can. She was trying so hard to explain her thoughts and her behaviors and the way that her autism affected her, and yet I continued to have thoughts of "oh my word, I don't know what I would do if I was the parent in this situation.As an autistic reader who so rarely sees myself well represented in books, I was very interested to check out Can You See Me? These could be useful for showing autism positively as well as understanding some different aspects children may experience. She is continually losing it when her family members tell her to do anything, like hurry up and get ready for school, and then blaming them because they KNOW that if they tell her to do something, she is unable to do it.

She doesn't want to not be autistic, because it's part of what makes her Tally, and I completely connect with that from my own different experiences. The reader is supposed to believe that the main character, Tally, is a mainstreamed student at a public middle school, but the way her behavior is portrayed, there is no way she would be mainstreamed, and particularly without an IEP and all her teachers knowing what her needs were, which is not the case in this story. During my current phase of quarantine, I have been reliving the highlights from when I was twelve and thirteen, watching some of the movies that I watched back then and rereading related journal entries.

Still, despite its stylistic flaws, this book has an encouraging message and provides what appears to be an extremely realistic representation of autism, even though I cannot speak from personal knowledge of it. But in spite of being based on the real life experience of a girl with autism, it doesn't ring true. This book beautifully portrays the experiences of Tally, a young girl with autism, as she transitions from primary to secondary school. Still, I have mixed feelings about aspects of this, since I know from my own experience that I can have a unique and different brain with all of the "pros" that Tally listed in her diary, without all of the "cons" staying at their worst forever. Puedes sacar muchas enseñanzas de este libro, no solo aprender a cómo tratar a una persona con autismo, sino a cómo tratar a la gente en general.