Comment

Aug 13, 2018samcmar rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
After Zero is a book with an interesting premise: Elise is a young girl with selective mutism and her school questions why this is the case. They are frustrated by her lack of speaking, but don't necessarily go about things in the most positive of manners. This is a middle grade book that is very emotional, and one I flew through in nearly a day. I loved Elise and I loved being in her mind. While this book doesn't have a lot of dialogue or conversations, it's interesting to see how a character with selective mutism interacts with their fellow classmates, family members and school faculty. Elise writes her feelings out, she is still emotionally a very expressive young girl, and the author makes Elise's story all the more interesting because we are only given such a limited scope of details. As the reader, it's like you have to build friendship and trust with Elise before she even opens up to you and I appreciate that tone of voice and distance in a story like this. In that regard, it creates a great mysterious atmosphere. This book is a intriguing look at children's mental health issues. This book is written with passion, tenderness, and and tons of empathy. This book shows how Elise's actions affect others and those around her. I think this book will be a fantastic tool to teach kids about empathy and how mental illness affects children during traumatic and difficult times. This is a fantastic debut, and one I hope many will share with this kids.