Slug Days

Lauren, who has Asperger Syndrome, navigates the ups and downs of school and home life. School friendships have always been a challenge, but Lauren finds she is exactly the friend a brand-new classmate needs. Illustrations.

Lauren and her family drive to a farm in North Dakota to visit relatives and celebrate her Aunt Jossie’s wedding. But Lauren finds to her dismay that she is expected to do more than meet adults who hug her and invade her personal space. Lauren is going to be—horror of all horrors—a flower girl. Lauren has Autism Spectrum Disorder, and she sees the world a little differently from other kids. What makes her comfortable are her routines and her coping mechanisms for her anxiety, which can get out of control in no time. So it is a challenge to deal with her rambunctious cousins, try on scratchy dresses, and follow impossible directions about going down aisles slowly-but-not-like-a-sloth and tossing pretend flowers around. So is it any surprise that Lauren flips her lid more than once? But while having an extended family seems like a lot of trouble at first, she’s about to learn just how much they can care for one another. In Penguin Days, two award winners revisit second-grader Lauren from the acclaimed Slug Days with equal humor and empathy. Drawing on her experience teaching children with ASD, Sara Leach creates an energetic character who stomps eloquently off the page. And Rebecca Bender’s delightful black-and-white illustrations show in Lauren’s fraught situations and facial expressions all the love and assertiveness that could possibly dwell together in one unique little person.

The third title in the collection that began with USBBY Outstanding International Book Slug Days. Lauren, a third-grade student who has Autism Spectrum Disorder, takes on the challenges of sharing her best friend and persevering when a classmate mocks her bicycle's training wheels.

Doug the slug is looking for a hug and soon finds there is a friend for everyone.

Norman, a slug who wants to be a snail, is determined to find something that will work as a shell.

Marylou and Herbie, two garden slugs, write love poems in slime to one another but have trouble actually meeting.

"This stunning collection puts humanity and mystery back into the text where they profoundly belong. . . . A must for any serious student of native literatures, or for any serious student of life."—Joy Harjo, poet, author of In Mad Love and War "A wonderful, empowering book."—Michael M.J. Fischer, co-author of Anthropology as Cultural Critique