Ellen Outside the Line

Writers are creatures of habit. Oh sure, we wax poetic about needing inspiration to strike and whatnot, but look closer and you will find a significant portion of authors have time honored traditions that are required for their productivity. The perfectly brewed cup of tea. A favored word processing program. Only sending queries on our lucky day of the month. In this way we are not dissimilar to Ellen, protagonist of A.J. Sass’s Ellen Outside the Lines. However, unlike us warriors of the written word, Ellen is about to voluntarily step outside her comfort zone in a big way on a class trip to Spain.

Ellen, who is both neurodivergent and Jewish, is looking forward to the trip as a means to reconnect with her best friend Laurel. They have recently been drifting apart and Ellen is struggling with the disruption this brings to her regular schedule. However, right from the outset, Ellen’s plans are sent into a tail spine. An additional student, Isa, is added to the trip and Ellen finds herself both confused and fascinated as to how Isa’s they/them pronouns fit into the world she had previously thought was binary. Then, Laurel and Ellen are assigned to different groups for a scavenger hunt competition and Ellen is surprised to discover she actually enjoys her new friends.

If that wasn’t enough, the appearance of a cute girl at the hotel where Ellen is staying and the discovery that her father doesn’t share the exact same type of ritual Jewish observance as Ellen and her mother do, further complicate Ellen’s trip. It’s a lot for anyone to handle, but for Ellen it is sensory and information overload. She has to find a way to balance it all and help comes from an unexpected place – her new scavenger hunt group.

Ellen is incredibly rich thematically. Many adult length books focus on a single one of the conflicts that Ellen faces – religious differences, shifting friendships, coming out, gender identity etc. Sass manages to cram them all into a MG length book in a style that is easily digested by younger readers, all while having a fun scavenger hunt and an exploration of Catalan culture in the background.

Still, it is not all fun and games. The book does contain a forced outing – largely off page. In addition, there are characters that cannot seem to wrap their heads around Isa’s nonbinary identity and there is one exchange where the reader is allowed to draw their own conclusion about whether a classmate is knowingly taking advantage of Ellen’s neurodivergence. Plus, another classmate seems to enjoy informing Ellen that her father broke the rules of Kashrut. There’s a lot to talk about here, and I would suggest parents read the book alongside their kids so that a fruitful discussion can be had by children with questions.

Ellen is well and truly in another world – and not just because she took an overseas flight. She’s been flung into a situation that is new on so many levels and in the process of dealing with this she makes mistakes. She also figures out who she is as a person and who she wants to be. Perhaps those of us seeking to find our narrative voices should take a page from her book and try something new. It just might work out in the end.

Want more on this book? BookishlyJewish was fortunate enough to recently interview the author! You can find that conversation here.

Find It: Goodreads | Bookshop | Amazon

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E Broderick is a writer and speculative fiction enthusiast. When not writing she enjoys epic games of trivial pursuit and baking. She currently lives in the U.S. but is eagerly awaiting the day a sentient spaceship offers to take her traveling around the galaxy.