Slug Days: 08/07/18

Slug Days by Sara Leach is middle grade fiction that features an autistic protagonist. Lauren describes her bad days as slug days — the ones where things get out of her control and she feels "slow and slimy." Her good days are butterfly days — ones where she makes her classmates laugh and she's the center of attention.

In Lauren's class, there's Dan. He's set up as her foil, but the way he's always there to get in Lauren's way and how he's always demanding (and usually getting) preferential treatment makes him a bully. His status as a bully is never addressed; instead he's set up as one of the kids Lauren should strive to behave like if she wants to no longer need counseling at school.

In fact this entire book is about how Lauren has to change to be normal. Sure, there are some social skills that autistic kids and adults learn to cope with crowds and other public situations. But it's also common decency to give a person leeway to be themselves, and to have a bad day. This book, though, is completely ableist. There is no attempt by any other characters to see things Lauren's way or to accommodate her.

The final straw is the book's lack of narrative structure. There are a few chapters of Lauren's days at school and a couple scenes at home. But there's no progression. There's no character growth. The book starts. It has some scenes. It stops.

Two stars

Comments (2)

Comment #1: Wednesday, August 08, 2018 at 03:45:23

Bookaapi Book Blog

How long this book blog is...
1997-2018.. Astonishing...
a pleasure to find it..

Comment #2: Sunday, August 12, 2018 at 19:25:00

Pussreboots

The website is 21 years old but it's only been a blog since 2004. You see what it was before it was a blog on the wayback machine.