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About the Author
Meg Eden Kuyatt is neurodivergent, nerdy for Pokémon and Fire Emblem, and cat mom to her two cats, Chaos Theory ("CT") and Hazel. She lives with her husband, teaches creative writing, and writes poetry. Good Different is her first Middle Grade novel. Aside from writing, Meg enjoys playing speed-chess, playing video games, woodworking, doodling, and having existential conversations.
About the Book
Selah knows her rules for being normal.
She always, always sticks to them. This means keeping her feelings locked tightly inside, despite the way they build up inside her as each school day goes on, so that she has to run to the bathroom and hide in the stall until she can calm down. So that she has to tear off her normal-person mask the second she gets home from school, and listen to her favorite pop song on repeat, trying to recharge. Selah feels like a dragon stuck in a world of humans, but she knows how to hide it.
Until the day she explodes and hits a fellow student.
Selah's friends pull away from her, her school threatens expulsion, and her comfortable, familiar world starts to crumble.
But as Selah starts to figure out more about who she is, she comes to understand that different doesn’t mean damaged. Can she get her school to understand that, too, before it’s too late?
Praise for Good Different:
ALA Schneider Family Book Award Honor (2024)
ALSC Notable Children’s Books List (2024)
Notable Books for a Global Society List (2024)
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People (2024)
Junior Library Guild Selection (2023)
School Library Journal Best Books of the Year List (2023)
Chicago Public Library Best Fiction for Older Readers List (2023)
Iowa Children's Choice Award List (2025-2026)
South Carolina Children's Book Award Nominee (2025-2026)
Georgia Children's Book Award Finalist (2025)
Oklahoma Sequoyah Book Awards Nominee (2025)
Utah Beehive Award Nominee (2025)
Maine Student Book Award List (2024-2025)
New Hampshire Great Stone Face Book Award Nominee (2024-2025)
Pennsylvania Keystone to Reading Book Award Nominee (2024-2025)
Read Aloud Indiana Book Award List (2024)
Michigan MISelf in Books List (2023)
"This beautifully written novel in verse follows one girl’s journey as she learns that she’s on the autism spectrum and comes to embrace herself. [...] Readers will empathize with Selah and rejoice with her as she learns to accept herself as she is." — Booklist (starred review)
"Kuyatt, who is autistic, uses candid lines to present Selah’s story, conveying her mother’s well-intentioned denial of Selah’s needs, and Selah’s own experiences, self-knowledge, and eventual self-advocacy." — Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
"Short free-verse vignettes beautifully evoke despair, loneliness—and determination." — Kirkus
"This neurodivergent trio of author, narrator, and protagonist should resonate with their shared experience and those not on the spectrum.” — School Library Journal
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