‘Anybody Here Seen Frenchie?’ and explicit recognition of autism

April is Autism Acceptance Month (yes, that’s Acceptance, and not just “awareness” of autism [Autism Society, 2021]). To commemorate this observance, I like to draw attention to books that feature an autistic main character. And with Anybody Here Seen Frenchie? by Leslie Connor, I can actually spotlight two protagonists who are on the autism spectrum.

First, a brief summary if you have not read the book: it concerns two sixth-graders, Aurora and Frenchie, who, up until the time of the story, have always been in the same classroom.

Frenchie is nonvocal and intensely interested in birds. Aurora tends to blurt what she is thinking and has struggled with making friends. Early in their lives, they each chose each other as their special person. But as sixth-grade looms, suddenly they will be in separate sixth-grade classrooms. For the first time also, Aurora has been able to make friends with two other classmates.

One day, when circumstances interrupt their routine of going to school and to their classrooms, Frenchie leaves school and goes missing. Much of the book focuses on the logistics of a community search for Frenchie.

As someone who was reading first a digital advance copy and then later the physical book, I was interested in a recent talk between Leslie Connor and Roger Sutton of The Horn Book.

During their conversation, Connor shared that she’d become “really interested in how vast the autism spectrum is.” She explained that for this book, she created two neurodiverse main characters, but she did not label either one of them (Sutton, 2021).

I am a reader who is, herself, on the autism spectrum. So, while the story certainly caught my interest and kept me invested in the outcome, I have to express concern that the publisher has labeled only one of these two protagonists as officially having “autism.” That would be Frenchie, the young boy who is also nonvocal.

Aurora, the other main protagonist and the story’s main narrator, is merely “cued as neurodiverse” in the words of a Kirkus review. But being “cued as” something isn’t the same as having your identity explicitly acknowledged and recognized.

I find this dichotomy especially concerning because girls and women are far less likely than boys and men to receive an official diagnosis of autism — possibly because of ways that clinicians interpret our behavior and our special interests (Zeliadt, 2018).

Without a diagnosis, we’re cut off from information that might explain our differences, and we’re certainly cut off from accommodations or services that might ease our struggles and challenges.

I am interested to know if either the author or the publisher sought input at any stage of the writing and publishing process from people on the autism spectrum. Their lived experience could provide valuable insight, since Connor in her talk with Sutton, acknowledges that she is not autistic - and in her author’s note, Connor credits only parents and a sibling of people on the autism spectrum, no autistic people themselves.

I do think the statement that Connor uncovered in her research is absolutely right-on, and that is, “Show me one autistic person and I’ll show you one autistic person” (Sutton, 2021).

Appreciation to NetGalley and to the publisher for giving me a digital ARC. I ask that the publisher please consider my feedback concerning the use of a diagnostic label to describe only one of this book’s two neurodiverse protagonists.

References:
Autism Society. (2021, March 4). Media urged to recognize shift from ‘Autism Awareness Month’ to ‘Autism Acceptance Month’ this April. Press releases. https://www.autism-society.org/releases/media-urged-to-recognize-shift-from-autism-awareness-month-to-autism-acceptance-month-this-april/

Connor, L. (2022). Anybody Here Seen Frenchie? Katherine Tegen Books.

Kirkus. (2022, Feb. 15). Anybody here seen Frenchie? Book reviews. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/leslie-connor/anybody-here-seen-frenchie/

Sutton, R. (2021, Dec. 16). Leslie Connor talks with Roger. Notes from the Horn Book. https://www.hbook.com/story/leslie-connor-talks-with-roger-2021

Zeliadt, N. (2018, June 13). Autism’s sex ratio, explained. Spectrum News. https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/autisms-sex-ratio-explained/