Speak Up! Review

 


Something else Rebecca Burgess and I have in common: we are both autistic! 

Speak Up! is a graphic novel about Mia, an autistic girl and her best friend, a nonbinary person named Charlie. Charlie likes to write songs and Mia likes to perform them under her persona: Elle-Q. She's become big on YouTube. 

Despite being popular online, Mia is quite unpopular at school due to being misunderstood as an autistic person. The person who picks on her the most is a girl named Laura. But here's the thing: Laura is secretly a huge Elle-Q fan, and she had no idea Mia is actually Elle-Q. Well, no one does, because Mia tries to keep it a secret. 

But one day things get out of hand when Charlie signs them and Mia up for the school talent show and get accepted, and so now they have their first live performance that their fans are counting on them to do. And another day Mia accidentally forgets her notebook at school that contains all of her Elle-Q songs. And the last person that she ever wanted that could get their hands on the notebook, gets the notebook! 

Well, from there, Mia begins to encounter many surprises...mostly involving Laura. 

Oh, this book was so wonderful words can't even express it! I gave it 5 stars. This was the kind of book I needed my whole life. As an autistic person myself, I am so glad to see more autism representation in kids' books, and I am so glad the author wrote a story where we can grow and learn from our mistakes and become better people. 

I will read anything else Rebecca Burgess puts out! They are becoming a new favorite author of mine. 

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