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Winner of a Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor! A heartfelt novel about a neurodivergent thirteen-year-old navigating changing friendships, a school trip, and expanding horizons for fans of Rain Reign and Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World. Thirteen-year-old Ellen Katz feels most comfortable when her life is well planned out and people fit neatly into her predefined categories. She attends temple with Abba and Mom every Friday and Saturday. Ellen only gets crushes on girls, never boys, and she knows she can always rely on her best-and-only friend, Laurel, to help navigate social situations at their private Georgia middle school. Laurel has always made Ellen feel like being autistic is no big deal. But lately, Laurel has started making more friends, and cancelling more weekend plans with Ellen than she keeps. A school trip to Barcelona seems like the perfect place for Ellen to get their friendship back on track. Except it doesn't. Toss in a new nonbinary classmate whose identity has Ellen questioning her very binary way of seeing the world, homesickness, a scavenger hunt-style team project that takes the students through Barcelona to learn about Spanish culture and this trip is anything but what Ellen planned. Making new friends and letting go of old ones is never easy, but Ellen might just find a comfortable new place for herself if she can learn to embrace the fact that life doesn't always stick to a planned itinerary.
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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ or (9/10)
Characters - 9
Atmosphere - 9
Writing - 9
Plot - 9
Intrigue - 9
Logic - 9
Enjoyment - 9
This book was so wholesome and beautiful! I felt seen and the MC and other characters were amazing ❤️ The emotion, the language details, the atmosphere, the little things---everything was on point. I enjoyed every minute of reading this and this book put a smile on my face ✨
0Characters
One of my favorite things in this book was the characters. All the characters had interesting backstories, and they all had personalities that I wanted to read more about. My favorite character was Ellen, not because she was the main character in the story, but because she went on a journey. Ellen’s growth over the novel was absolutely amazing, and I loved reading about how much she grew over the course of the story. I loved the supporting cast.They were all very well crafted characters, and they all supported Ellen on her journey to find herself. In the end, there was an understanding between all of the characters, and that was fantastic.
Plot
Most of the story took place in Spain, and I just loved seeing Spain from the eyes of Ellen and her friends. The scavenger hunt was an interesting plot element and one that kept me guessing, wondering how it was going to end in the story. Another major element of the plot was the journey that Ellen found herself, and I loved seeing how much the story helped Ellen find herself. Friendships come and go, especially in Middle-School, and this was an authentic story about friends, old and new, coming together, which I loved.
Writing
The writing of this novel was excellent, and I loved how the writing worked to tell the story. The lighter tone was welcome during the more light-hearted and fun scenes, where the group was bonding, and getting to know each other. This was a story that also had some heavy scenes and the writing during the heavy scenes in the story and the more honest scenes set the tone for the rest of the story.
Friendship
Friendship plays a big role in Ellen Outside the lines, and I loved the friend group. Laurel was Ellen’s best friend but as a friendship goes, Laurel started hanging out with two other girls, without Ellen, and Ellen misses the way it used to be. Ellen’s team was made up of Isa, Gibs, and Andy, and as a team, they all worked very well together. The end of the novel was sweet because both friend groups talked, and they came up with a plan where they could all hang out together. Ellen also learned that she could make other friends over the course of the story.
Enjoyment/ Recommend for
I loved this story so much. I believe that anyone who enjoys Middle-Grade Contemporary, LGBTQ+ stories, and stories about friendship, would enjoy this novel.
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