Girls Like Us

Giles, Gail. Girls Like Us. Candlewick Press, 2014.

Quincy and Biddy have both graduated from their high school's special education program, and they have been placed together to live in the above-garage apartment at a woman's home. Biddy is supposed to help around the house - cooking, cleaning, etc. - and Quincy has a job at a local supermarket. Circumstances provide Biddy with a safe space to reveal some harrowing secrets about her past while Quincy keeps a current secret safe as well. The girls become friends as they realize they have more in common then just being "speddies."

There are definitely not enough books featuring characters with disabilities, so I was glad to see this book containing two main characters who age out of the high school special education program and who are then placed in jobs where they can maintain some sort of independent life. Their lives are not portrayed as perfect and each girl tells the back story behind her placement in the special education program. Survivors of sexual assault will want to take gentle care as the story does involve a rape. Recommended.

Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: language, violence, one character is raped while another discusses a past rape, one character was violently abused as a child which caused her TBI (traumatic brain injury)
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Read-Alikes: Speak, Out of My Mind