Booklists

CCBC Review:

Minneapolis high school senior Effie Galanos (white) has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. Effie hopes to go to Prospect University in New York City for college, and she worries less about getting in than about telling her parents her plan. She knows proving she can advocate for herself will go a long way toward getting their approval, and her high school is providing plenty of opportunities to rise to the challenge. Her IEP says she can have two lockers, but one is taken away. And now that she’s a senior, Effie is allowed to leave campus for lunch, but the only door the school leaves unlocked isn’t accessible. Effie is also working with Wilder, another member of student council, on a school beautification project that will be welcoming to physically disabled students. When Effie finally tells her parents about Prospect, and they take a family trip to visit campus, she’s dismayed to discover how inaccessible Prospect (and the subway) is; in fact, a wheelchair user has never graduated from Prospect. In contrast, she also gets into U.C. Berkeley, which has achieved great strides in accessibility and in making disabled students feel welcome. Effie’s starry-eyed crush on Wilder and their developing romance is yet another aspect of this story that offers eye-opening insights for readers who aren’t physically disabled as Effie is confronted again and again with the small and large challenges of mobility in a world in which accessibility is an too often an afterthought. ©2023 Cooperative Children’s Book Center  

CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 12 and older
Age Range: Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13) Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format: Novel
Subjects: Ableism Activism and Resistance College Decisions and Consequences Discrimination and Prejudice Education Independence/Self-Reliance Physical Disability
Diversity subject: Physical

Publishers: Scholastic, Scholastic Press
Publish Year: 2023
Pages: 306
ISBN: 9781338813838
CCBC Location: Fiction, Forrest

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