Benjamin Ludwig’s debut novel, Ginny Moon, takes the reader on an amazing ride into the mind of Ginny, a young teenager with autism who is trying to find her place in her adoptive home.
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The story of her past comes to light gradually, ratcheting up the tension as the book travels steadily towards its climactic conclusion.
The book is compulsively readable and touching and the main character lingers long in the memory after you’ve read the last page.
The author, Benjamin Ludwig, is a teacher of English and writing and also has first hand experience at being a foster father to a teenager with autism.
Although he points out in the author’s notes that the novel is in no way related to his own journey as a foster parent, his ability to convey the thoughts and desires of a teenage girl with autism has no doubt been deeply informed by his firsthand experience.
The novel is entirely voiced by Ginny, the main character, as she tries to find a place to belong and make sense of a world that just doesn’t seem to add up.
Ginny has finally found her “forever home” — a place where she’ll be safe and protected, with a family that will love and nurture her.
It’s exactly the kind of home that all foster kids are hoping for. The big question in the book is why is she so desperate to get kidnapped by her abusive, drug-addict birth mother, Gloria, and return to a grim existence of hiding under the kitchen sink to avoid the authorities and her mother’s violent boyfriends?
This unique and readable debut novel takes you into the mind of a curious and deeply human character who is unashamedly different in a world that increasingly asks people to conform.