Student Review
Review By: Heather R (12th grade)
Grade Range: 7th Grade and up
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Literary Merit: Great
Characterization: Great
Review:
The State of Grace centers around a young girl named Grace who is living her life differently than others since she is autistic. Life for everyone else seems easy according to Grace. To her, it is as if every other person in the world received a detailed list of procedures and tips for how they need to live out their daily lives, and she just so happened to not be around on that particular day to receive her copy. Just when life starts to make sense to her, through daily trips to the stables to see Mabel, her horse, changes set in and take over her perfectly stable life. Her dad, through his work as a nature filmmaker, has to travel far away from home for a long period of time and is practically leaving his family behind for his work. On top of that, there's the issue of Eve, a friend of Grace’s mom, who has decided to invade the house and influence her mom in ways that do not benefit the family as a whole. To top all of that off there is the fact that Grace is finding out what it's like to deal with the wrath of the popular girl at school, Holly Carmichael. These issues combine to start creating a world that is even more unknown for Grace, she still is able to push through them with the power of friendship and family.

The State of Grace has a cover that is not very eye catching at first until one realizes how much meaning the cover actually holds. The subtlety mixed with color included on the cover allows Grace’s personality to be accurately represented. The message of the story, told through a main character who is autistic, is that it is not always possible for people to fit in exactly like how others do. Instead, these people can fit in and be accepted by just being themselves and not trying to change their true personalities. The best aspect of the book had to be the main character, Grace. The number one reason Grace stood out as a character was due to the fact that she was not created to be a perfect person. She was created to be the eye opener for people that might have no clue what Autism is like on a daily basis for anyone that might be living with disorder. Grace can be a rather frustrating character, yet that allows the readers to understand how difficult her life, which may seem simple to others, is for her. Her friendships with Anna and Gabe allow her to realize that some people can understand that their choices might be easy for them while her choices can be much more complicated for her. Leah, her sister, allows her to have a personality that is not just defined by her disorder. The plot of the book was set at a decent pace which allowed Grace to show character development from the first to the last page of the book. Even though that was the case, I was not sure what the plot was going to entirely entail when I first picked up the book. Because of that, I was a little nervous at first that I was not going to like the book. Although, as I started to get further into the book I realized that there were elements of foreshadowing that helped to create a story that was far more than the typical high school love story that I thought that it was going to be.
Recommendation: For any reader that loves Realistic Fiction and enjoys seeing through the eyes of a character that is not perfect and can be frustrating. ( )