MAYBE JUST ASK ME! written and illustrated by Katie Mazeika

It’s hard enough entering a classroom in full swing, worse for Mazie who prepares by wearing her “favorite scarf” and “prettiest eye patch.” Katie Mazeika bases MAYBE JUST ASK ME! on her own childhood experiences. Mazie’s classmates don’t just stare, they make up stories imagining she had her hair burned by performing in a circus or it fell out when she was frightened by space monsters, her eye patch the result of a pirate attack. But no one talks to her directly, she feels hopeless until she remembers her recent past. She blows a whistle and tells her classmates she is “as daring as any circus girl, fiercer than a pirate…And if you really want the story of what happened to me!” Her courage earns her friends who admire her storytelling. The book ends as with an afterwords by the author who tells her story and what can be done to support “people like me.”  You can find out more about this book at the purchase link below.