Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm.
- ISBN: 9780545054744
- Author: Stork, Francisco X.
- Published: 2009 , Arthur A. Levine Books
- Themes: Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, Disability, injustice
- Descriptors: Mexico, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Young Adult (ages 14-18)
- No. of pages: 320
For the final week of December, I read Marcelo in the Real World (Stork, 2011). What a marvelous treat this reading was, and such a great way to end the theme of returning home. Marcelo brings to the fore the reality that “home” can be a place, a person, or a sense of self and one’s convictions. Learning to know who he is and what he desires from his life, the character Marcelo found a home within himself and those he trusted in the real world. I especially liked the portrayal of a variety of people in “the real world,” and how reality is much more complex than anticipated by anyone. Life is such a surprise!
At 17, Marcelo is finishing his junior year at Paterson, a school for students who are challenged developmentally or physically. Marcelo, however, does not quite fit either one of those descriptions, but is most often referred to as having a condition similar to Asperger’s Syndrome. The summer promises working with the ponies, one of Marcelo’s special interests, but his father decides it is time for Marcelo to enter the “real world,” and adapt to the challenges that arise as part of that reality. Marcelo goes to work in his father’s law firm, and yes, begins to enter the real world.
Marcelo is an amazing read, and while quite different from the other books for this month: The Scorpio Races (Stiefvater, 2011), The White Darkness (McCaughrean, 2005), and The Book of Everything (Kuijer, 2006), it allows readers to ponder the process of finding, returning, or arriving home.