Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig

The latest book I have been enjoying is Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig. Published by HQ today, 1^st June 2017.

I have no experience of Autism at all, other than reading A Boy Made of Blocks which I read earlier this year. I don’t think that matters because as soon as I read the blurb for Ginny Moon I wanted to read more.

Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig

Ginny Moon‘s painfully honest narrator is Ginny, a girl with autism living in a world that just doesn’t add up. Five years ago the police forcibly removed her from the home of her abusive mother Gloria.

Now fourteen and in her 4th Forever Home, Ginny is hell-bent on returning to her mother’s apartment – despite knowing how dangerous that could be – to find something she insists she hid under the bed.

Ginny will steal, lie, plan her own kidnapping and tear apart every shred of the normal, stable life she currently has, just to find what she left at the farthest edge of forever…

 

I found this book easy to read and it has been stuffed into my backpack so I could read a few pages whenever I had a few free minutes. Although this is a desperately sad story I enjoyed discovering more about the main character Ginny and her world. The story takes place over 6 months and the book is written as a series of short chapters as everything Ginny does is dictated by time or numbers.

The cast of characters is quite small but it is easy to feel like you know and empathise with each of the main characters. As a mother I could relate to the Forever Mother who was worried for her unborn child, I felt frustrated along with the Forever Father and the teachers who tried to help. The story is heartbreaking, poignant and powerful – I guarantee you will love it!

The author, Benjamin Ludwig, is a middle school language arts teacher, who has been teaching both children and adults since 1997. He believes strongly in supporting the voiceless and the displaced, especially their need for attachment.  Shortly after he and his wife were married they became foster parents, and adopted their first placement: a teenager with autism and developmental disabilities. Ginny Moon was inspired in part by conversations he had with other parents at Special Olympics basketball practices. He hopes to adopt again after his daughter transitions into adulthood.

Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig. Published by HQ today, 1^st June 2017.