The birth of a unique friendship

“This is Nanette. A little girl with a head full of birds.” So begins author Alexandra Garibal’s poignant narrative about two neurodiverse children who become friends.

Nanette is bullied by her peers because they think her actions are strange; the young girl likes to eat ham with her fruit yogurt, to sit for lengthy periods watching a spider’s web and to rock back and forth, fluttering her fingers.

One day, Noah, a boy in Nanette’s class, decides to make paper planes. When he throws a plane across the room, it lands at the teacher’s feet. As a consequence, Noah must move from the back of the class to the front into the desk by Nanette’s so the teacher can keep an eye on him.

Initially, Nanette and Noah’s relationship is prickly because Noah accidentally ruins Nanette’s drawing of a bird. But, after school, when Noah sees Nanette floating bright paper boats in a water-filled gutter, he is impressed and really sees his classmate.

The next day, as rain pummels the schoolyard, Nanette stands in the deluge and turns her face to the sky. Noah’s friends make fun of Nanette – “She’s so stupid! She’s so stupid!” But Noah knows they are wrong. He turns away from them. When he notices Nanette taking off her boots so she can splash in puddles, he runs to her to bring her to shelter. But Nanette has another idea – a delightfully original and playful notion – that cements their friendship, an idea that young readers are sure to enjoy.

Illustrator Sibylle Delacroix’s gentle artwork enhances author Alexandra Garibal’s heart-warming narrative about the birth of a unique friendship.