"The X-men are mutants who don't fit into society. They're like [Kiara Thornton], but all of them have special powers. [Kiara's} trying to find [hers]." She has Asperger's and has recently been suspended for hitting a fellow student with a lunch tray. She desperately tries to strike up a friendship with every new kid but so far hasn't met with success. Her mother, Mami, used to tell her how to act but she has left after the family band collapsed to perform as a back-up signer. Kiara asks Mr. Internet how kids with Asperger's can find friends. He has 255,000 answers for her. Unfortunately, her newest prospect for friendship, 7th grader Chad, a new neighbor whose family moved into what used to be the Mackenzie Music Store, has a father who is making meth and uses Chad to procure Sudafed. He is a musician like her father and together they make awesome music. Kiara is faced with a dilemma. She had to be a superhero like her heroine, Rogue, one of the X-men. Will Chad be her Gambit?
This is a moving, insider's view into the ramifications of having Asperger's Syndrome, the minefield of middle/high school friendship, and one young girl's determination to do the right thing, make the world a better place, and to a friend...and a hero.
Truman Award Preliminary Nominee 2015-16
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