Can You See Me?

Reviewed by Eva

Can You See Me? by Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott, 2019

“I’ve been hiding myself for a while now. It’s hard to expose the bits that I’ve been made to feel uncomfortable with”. 

Can You See Me is an inspiring book based on real events and diary entries from Libby Scott, a young autistic girl. We follow the character Tally Adams, an 11-year-old girl who is recently diagnosed with autism and is starting at a new high school in Year 7. Tally is struggling with feeling broken and different, and the only way to fix this is to figure out how to be, think, talk and act like everyone else and who everyone else expects her to be. But when you keep pushing who you really are down, your feelings are bound to come up in other ways.

This book encompassed the autistic experience well and discusses topics such as, meltdowns, masking, stimming, anxiety, managing big feelings, bullying and friendships. Tally’s family plays a big role in this book, and we are able to see the challenges that they face to together and how they navigate Tally’s diagnosis. Tally is constantly comparing herself to her older sister who she thinks is perfect and the better child.

I was so invested in this story that I read it in a day! I would strongly recommend this story to anyone who wants to understand the autistic experience better, or any autistic person who wants to feel seen, understood and that they are not alone. Tally teaches us to be proud of who we are.

This book can be found in a bunch of places including Amazon, Dymocks, and Audible.