The Not-So-Perfect Plan and Good Different

Matula, Christina. The Not-So-Perfect Plan (Holly Mei #2)
April 4, 2023 by Inkyard Press
E ARC provided by Netgalley

In this sequel to The Not-So-Uniform Life of Holly Mei, Holly-Mei and her family have settled into a routine in their new life in Hong Kong, where they have moved from Toronto when her mother's job moved them there. She and younger sister Millie attend Tai Tam Prep, and Holly-Mei is on the field hockey team. She's disappointed when she doesn't make MVP, but instead gets the award for the Most Improved Player. This stings especially when Millie wins a bake off with an avocado/chocolate cake even though she wasn't baking to win. Holly-Mei is jealous of all of the attention and social media love that Millie gets, and comes up with an idea; she will put together a team and enter the annual Dragon Dash, an orienteering race around the city. It's coming up quickly, but she manages to put together a team that includes cousins, Gemma, and others from school, but not Saskia, whose mother is pushing her to do better at hockey and other sports so she can qualify for the Olympics. The team calls themselves the Tai Tam Thunder and intend to play for fun until Holly-Mei, driven by the need to win, becomes demanding and takes a lot of the joy out of the training. Will she be able to compete, keep her friends, and get over her need to win things in order to feel loved?
Strengths: I doubt that I will ever get to travel to Hong Kong, so this was a good virtual tour of the city. At one point, Holly-Mei and Millie even get to travel on their own to the market to buy supplies; one of my favorite things to do while traveling is to go grocery shopping, since it gives such a good picture of what it's really like to live in a country. The sibling rivalry was well done, and I appreciated that Holly-Mei still liked her sister and got along with her even when she was jealous. The field hockey and running training will appeal to readers who like sports, and characters like Gemma add some social drama. The other fun part about this book was all of the food descriptions; it's fairly common to get descriptions of meals, but I loved that we got to hear a lot about Holly-Mei's snacks. I feel like at some point I will need to obtain some White Rabbit candy!  

Weaknesses: There were a lot of characters to keep straight, so I would have enjoyed this more if there had been a team of about four!

What I really think: This felt a bit like Harrison's The Clique books or Russell's Dork Diaries, with its ensemble cast, school related activity, and friend and family drama, but it was good to see a more international spin on realistic fiction.

Kuyatt, Meg Eden. Good Different
April 4, 2023 by Scholastic Press
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Selah (SAYluh, not SELLuh) attends the Pebblecreek private school, and has done fairly well there. She has a small but loyal group of friends, including Noelle, who loves fantasy books, Gemma, and Addie. She lives with her mother and next door to her grandfather, Pop, who is the only one who really understands her. Selah's mother wants her to remember that she needs to be "normal" and not stand out at school, but this is hard, because Selah has a lot of sensory processing issues that have not been addressed. She also thinks a bit differently from her classmates; she is very interested in dragons, but knows not to talk too much about them even with Noelle. Sometimes her system is too overwhelmed; when Addie is brushing her hair in the way that 6th grade girls often do, Selah flails and hits her friends, earning her a suspension. This makes her feel even more awkward and unable to deal with being overstimulated. While she does have one teacher who encourages to work through some of her difficulties by writing poetry, there is another teacher who puts her on the spot and refuses to make any accomodations for her. After a visit to a ComicCon, where she meets a vendor who suggests some fidgets and other methods for coping, Selah does some research of her own. Armed with gummies, sunglasses, and ear plugs, she does much better paying attention until the teacher takes her "toys" away. Her mother thinks that Pebblecreek is the best school for her, but the principal doesn't think that the school has the necessary capabilities for dealing with Selah's "issues". Eventually, she approaches her mother, who has similar issues navigating the world, and asks to go to the doctor to see if she can get help. The doctor indicates that the autism spectrum in girls is often misunderstood, but that Selah can get help. There are some notes at the end by the author, who is neurodivergent, about the autism spectrum, related books, and a bit about her own experiences. 

Strengths: This had a lot of good information about Selah's struggles as well as what she does to try to make things easier for herself. It's important for young readers to meet characters like Selah in literature, because they will meet many of them in real life, and this will help to understand the challenges that others face. This was a novel in verse, reflecting Selah's love of poetry. My daughter, like Addie, managed to run afoul of one of her friends (who was identified as being on the Autism Spectrum a year later) in 6th grade, when her friend threw a wooden block at her in science class. She was understanding of her friend and didn't avoid her, but it was a bit hard to help her fully understand why her friend had become so agitated. A book like this would have helped. It was interesting to see that both Selah's mother and grandfather also struggled. The inclusion of a comic con and the description of a variety of coping mechanisms, like weighted blankets, was helpful. Having an author who is writing from experience and not research adds another level of detail to the story. 

Weaknesses: We have had an autism spectrum unit at my school for over twenty years, and there are many students who have not been identified but who exhibit some ASD traits; we certainly allow headphones and fidgets, and have all manner of accomodations available. The teacher who took away Selah's items and the principal who was ready to kick Selah out didn't ring true to me, but Pebblecreek is a private school, and while they are probably legally obligated to identify and accomodate differences, the reality is probably different. Schools may also have changed a bit since Kuyatt's school years, although perhaps not enough.

What I really think: This is a good addition to books that deal with children who struggle with sensory issues, like Mackler's Not if I Can Help It, Pla's Stanley Will Probably Be Fine, Kapit's Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen, McNicoll's A Kind of Spark, Gennari's Muffled, and Sass' Ellen Outside the Lines. I would have liked to see an additional plot ARC not related to Selah's ASD, since my readers are used to books with characters who have various issues but whose lives don't revolve solely around them, like Gerber's Focused. 

Trying to be better about keeping statistics!