TAYSHAS 2019 #5

Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig

Ginny is thirteen, almost fourteen, at the start of the book. She is autistic, and lives with her "forever" parents. Ginny was taken away from her drug using and abusive mother when she was nine. She keeps asking if her baby doll was found and if it is ok. Turns out the baby doll is not a doll at all, but Ginny's baby sister that no one knew about.

Let me back up a little... Ginny has been in two previous "forever" homes, but she keeps running away to try to get back to her mother, Gloria, because she wants her baby doll. She is not allowed on the internet because everyone thinks she will try to contact Gloria (they're not wrong). One day at school, a friend of Ginny's helps her find Gloria on Facebook, and Gloria tries twice to see Ginny. She contacts Gloria one more time to tell her to come to her harvest concert at school, and instead Ginny's aunt comes and kidnaps her. Her aunt, Crystal, is the only one at this point, besides Gloria, who knows the truth about the baby doll. Ginny doesn't stay with Crystal long because there is an Amber Alert out for her, so Crystal takes Ginny back to school. Turns out, the person who helped find Ginny is her birth dad, Rick.

While Ginny was kidnapped, her forever mom gave birth to a baby girl. Forever Mom doesn't trust Ginny with the baby, and becomes increasingly hostile towards Ginny. Ginny still wants to be with Gloria, and does everything she can to be with her mother. By this time, they have figured out that the baby doll is Ginny's sister, Krystal. Ginny has been acting weird and stealing things, and her forever mom starts to think that she needs to be at a school for girls. Ginny doesn't want that and cements her plans with Gloria for Gloria to come get her.

Things don't go as planned, but they work out for the best in the end. My heart went out to Ginny because all she wanted was to take care of her baby doll, but didn't understand that her sister wasn't a baby anymore. That was really hard for Ginny to come to terms with.

What I liked about the book is that it gave some insight to how the minds of some people on the autism spectrum work. I realize that not all people with autism are the same, but sometimes it helps to further understanding for those of us not on the spectrum. On the whole, this was a good read.