Ellen Outside the Lines

Winner of a Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor!

A heartfelt novel about a neurodivergent thirteen-year-old navigating changing friendships, a school trip, and expanding horizons for fans of Rain Reign and Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World.


Thirteen-year-old Ellen Katz feels most comfortable when her life is well planned out and people fit neatly into her predefined categories. She attends temple with Abba and Mom every Friday and Saturday. Ellen only gets crushes on girls, never boys, and she knows she can always rely on her best-and-only friend, Laurel, to help navigate social situations at their private Georgia middle school. Laurel has always made Ellen feel like being autistic is no big deal. But 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 place for Ellen to get their friendship back on track.
 
Except it doesn’t. Toss in a new nonbinary classmate whose identity has Ellen questioning her very binary way of seeing the world, homesickness, a scavenger hunt-style team project that takes the students through Barcelona to learn about Spanish culture and this trip is anything but what Ellen planned.

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.
Goodreads

Formats and Prices

Price

$16.99

Price

$22.99 CAD

A. J. Sass

About the Author

A. J. Sass-Cao (he/they) is the critically acclaimed author of Just Shy of Ordinary, as well as the ALA Rainbow Book List Top 10 middle grade titles Ana on the EdgeCamp QUILTBAG, and Ellen Outside the Lines, which was also a Sydney Taylor Honor Book. He splits his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and Northwest Vermont with his husband. He invites you to visit him online at sassinsf.com. This is A. J. Sass’s first picture book.

Noa Kelner graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. She works with publishers, newspapers, and magazines, and loves to give stories color and form. She is the cofounder and artistic director of the annual Outline Festival in Jerusalem, which celebrates illustration and creativity. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and three children. Shabbat Is… is Noa’s debut picture book in the United States.

Learn more about this author