Forget Me Not

Forget Me Not

By Ellie Terry 

Narrated by Matt Godfrey and Heather Costa

Listening length 2 hours 47 minutes

Publication date March 12, 2019

My review: four out of five stars

Read for my March 2023 Reading challenge, prompt 1: Differently-abled main character. March is National Disabilities awareness month. I choose this book because the main character has Tourette's, a "hidden" disability. 

A girl tries to hide her quirks at a new school in this middle-grade novel from debut author Ellie Terry.

Astronomy-loving Calliope June has Tourette syndrome, so she sometimes makes faces or noises that she doesn't mean to make. When she and her mother move yet again, she tries to hide her TS. But it isn't long before the kids at her new school realize she's different. Only Calliope's neighbor, who is also the popular student body president, sees her as she truly is—an interesting person and a good friend. But is he brave enough to take their friendship public?

As Calliope navigates school, she must also face her mother's new relationship and the fact that they might be moving—again—just as she starts to make friends and finally accept her differences.

Partially in verse and partially in prose with two intertwined points of view, Ellie Terry's affecting debut will speak to a wide audience about being true to oneself.

This beautiful story is told part in verse, in alternating viewpoints. The story of a girl with Tourette's who has been convinced to hide her illness at new school after new school. Her and her mother have moved 10 times. The girl hopes this time she can make a best friend. I fell in love with this girl. How she clings to her hope, despite being moved over and over again. She longs to be enough for her mother, just her. Have her mom not need another boyfriend, another man in her life. This book was a beautiful story to listen to, the story flows from this narrator's mouth like a song. I just loved it.

We Are All So Good At Smiling

We Are All So Good At Smiling

By Amber McBride 

Audiobook read by the author

Published January 10, 2023 

My review 4.5 stars out of 5

They Both Die at the End meets The Bell Jar in this haunting, beautiful young adult novel-in-verse about clinical depression and healing from trauma, from National Book Award Finalist Amber McBride.

Whimsy is back in the hospital for treatment of clinical depression. When she meets a boy named Faerry, she recognizes they both have magic in the marrow of their bones. And when Faerry and his family move to the same street, the two start to realize that their lifelines may have twined and untwined many times before.

They are both terrified of the forest at the end of Marsh Creek Lane.

The Forest whispers to Whimsy. The Forest might hold the answers to the part of Faerry he feels is missing. They discover the Forest holds monsters, fairy tales, and pain that they have both been running from for 11 years.

This entire book is a metaphor for the fight that one has with their mental health. It is a beautiful story and one I can see sharing with my daughters. We are all fighting some kind of battle, even if it isn't against an actual mental health diagnosis.

There were two quotes that jumped out at me from this story. They might not be transcribed perfectly as I was listening while working. The first one is from around 14% in the book:

A rough day, a bad year -- does not equal a bad life.

It is a good reminder to stick on your mirror or in your phone to see every day.

 
The second one was around 53% of the way through:

Faerry points at my neck, "Sorrow left its fingerprints on you, it always does, doesn't it?"

Another one that makes you think of your own life, of the things that leave fingerprints on you.

I listened to this audiobook read by the author. It has a great note after by her as well as some resources. I would love to take a quick look at a hard copy just to see it. It is a beautiful cover.