Picked by Sarah Divine

April is Autism Awareness Month! Spend some time with these titles and get to know YA characters who are on the autistic spectrum.

  • Marcelo in the Real World
    Francisco X. Stork

    Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mail room of a corporate law firm.

  • Anything but Typical
    Nora Raleigh Baskin

    Jason, a twelve-year-old autistic boy who wants to become a writer, relates what his life is like as he tries to make sense of his world.

  • Livvie Owen Lived Here
    Sarah Dooley

    Fourteen-year-old Livvie Owen, who has autism, and her family have been forced to move frequently because of her outbursts, but when they face eviction again, Livvie is convinced she has a way to get back to a house where they were all happy, once.

  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
    Mark Haddon

    Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.

  • Rain Reign
    Ann M. Martin

    Struggling with Asperger's, Rose shares a bond with her beloved dog, but when the dog goes missing during a storm, Rose is forced to confront the limits of her comfort levels, even if it means leaving her routines in order to search for her pet.

  • Harmonic Feedback
    Tara Kelly

    When Drea and her mother move in with her grandmother in Bellingham, Washington, the sixteen-year-old finds that she can have real friends, in spite of her Asperger's, and that even when you love someone it does not make life perfect.

  • Mindblind
    Jennifer Roy

    Fourteen-year-old Nathaniel Clark, who has Asperger's Syndrome, tries to prove that he is a genius by writing songs for his rock band, so that he can become a member of the prestigious Aldus Institute, the premier organization for the profoundly gifted.

  • The Half-Life of Planets
    Emily Franklin & Brendan Halpin

    An unlikely romance develops between a science-minded girl who is determined to reclaim her reputation and a boy with Asperger's Syndrome.

  • Rules
    Cynthia Lord

    Frustrated at life with an autistic brother, twelve-year-old Catherine longs for a normal existence but her world is further complicated by a friendship with a young paraplegic.

  • Thinking in Pictures: And Other Reports from My Life with Autism
    Temple Grandin

    In her own words, Temple Grandin discusses her unique ability to describe the way her visual mind works and how she first made the connection between her impairment and animal temperament that is the basis of her extraordinary gift and phenomenal success.