Ellen Outside the Lines

Winner of a Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor!

Ellen Outside the Lines introduces us to thirteen-year-old Ellen Katz, who feels most comfortable when her life is well-planned and people fit neatly into her predefined categories. Ellen attends temple with her Abba and Mom every Friday and Saturday. She only gets crushes on girls, never on boys, and she knows she can always rely on her best—and only—friend, Laurel, to navigate social situations at their private Georgia middle school. Laurel has always made Ellen feel that being autistic is no big deal. However, lately, Laurel has started making more friends and cancelling more weekend plans with Ellen than she keeps. A school trip to Barcelona seems like the perfect opportunity for Ellen to get their friendship back on track.

Except, nothing goes as planned. Introduce a new nonbinary classmate whose identity challenges Ellen's very binary perception of the world, coupled with homesickness, a scavenger hunt-style team project that takes the students through Barcelona to learn about Spanish culture, and this trip becomes anything but what Ellen envisioned.

Making new friends and letting go of old ones is never easy, but Ellen might just find a comfortable new place for herself if she can learn to embrace the fact that life doesn't always stick to a planned itinerary.