4.5

Why this won the Schneider Family Book Award is no mystery. This is truly a stellar depiction of a middle schooler with autism. (I say A middle schooler advisedly because one place this book excels is in not intimating there is only one type of autistic person or painting with broad brushes.) I love how the adults in this book do not see Axel as a problem to solve but as a full human being in his own right. This is very much a book about how neurodiverse children do not need to contort themselves for the comfort of those around them. The characters are all fully realized, and I loved the found family element of the community Axel and his mother have.

I was so nervous waiting for the Great MG Traumatic Incident that always occurs in these type of books I couldn't enjoy it fully. (Everyone else, rest easy. The dog survives. No one dies.) This will not be a problem for the intended audience but is purely the result of being a teacher who has read too many contemporary MG issue books in her life. The only reason it's not 5 stars is

Spoiler

the author did make a choice to injure the dog and make the kid feel responsible, which definitely feels overused even if the dog made it in the end.