This post is part of an original series created by librarians/media specialists across Central Minnesota featuring books.

Title: Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern
Written by Maria Burnham, Media Specialist at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School

Another pretty good realistic fiction YA novel.  The storyline is about two 18-year-olds, a girl, Amy, with Cerebral Palsy and a boy, Matthew, who has OCD.  For her senior year, Amy’s parents decide to hire “peer helpers” to help Amy throughout the school day instead of adult aids.  They are hoping that the peer helpers will help Amy meet new friends and enable her to transition to college.  Matthew has always known Amy from a distance, and has taken the job as her peer helper because Amy specifically asks him to.  And so stems an unlikely friendship between two outcasts.

I liked most of the book; however, some of the events in the end seemed a bit unrealistic for the characters in the book (no spoilers here!).  Otherwise, I liked the characterization and the decisions that many 18-year-olds must face as they experience their senior year and find tremendous pressure to go to college no matter what.  This book is a coming-of-age story, and one that I will certainly recommend to my students.