I am reading Suzanne Crowley's The very ordered existence of Merilee Marvelous and I find I like listening to Merilee's voice in this story about a young girl with Asperger's Syndrome. She's Merilee Monroe (she'd snicker, too, she says), 13, wears the same things every day (yellowy orangey shirt with the words Dilley's Chicken & Feed emblazoned on the front) --an extreme source of embarrassment to her sister, Bug. She keeps a journal and writes facts that people tell her and she likes big words...like marvelous. She must keep her VOE -- Very Ordered Existence, but that's hard to do with a new kid who seems to be making himself a part of the family.
