Role Model

By Author / Illustrator

Elle McNicoll

Genre

Representation & Inclusion

Age range(s)

Publisher

Knights Of

ISBN

9781915820075

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

04-09-2025

Synopsis

From the award-winning author of A Kind of Spark comes a new heartfelt and timely novel for middle-grade and teen readers.

Aeriel Sharpe doesn't want to be anyone's role model. But, when her mother is elected to be the most important politician in the country (yes, that one), she is thrust into the spotlight. With the world's eyes on her, friends don't seem that friendly and she feels trapped by everyone's expectations. They want her to be the voice of every autistic teenager, but Aeriel must find a way to speak for herself... It's not easy being 13... and it's even harder when you're the most famous teenager in the country.

"One of the most exciting talents on the children's publishing scene and... has transformed the representation of neurodivergent children in literature." The Bookseller

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Reviews

Jenny

Elle McNicoll simply excels in her books featuring young neurodiverse female characters. Her books grip the reader and lay bare the neurodiverse experience and reality of young people's lives, which she both celebrates and explores through her narrative. The neurodiverse inner mind faces an often rigid, intolerant outside world.

In Role Model, 13-year-old Aerial is front page news. As the daughter of the new PM, all eyes are on her, and for autistic Aerial, there is now no privacy, no quiet and no safe space. There are so many transitions to navigate (new family dynamics, new house, new school, new 'friends' ) and all in the public gaze.

Aerial is an engaging, bright and inquisitive girl who is trying to find her newly teenage voice and her place in her social surroundings. Beautifully heartfelt, achingly heart-wrenching and fiercely, proudly bold and powerful, Role Model confronts the reality of growing up neurodiverse in the world today. It is so relevant and relatable for her young readers.

As the parent of a young ND woman, so much of this book mirrored some real life experiences I saw for myself; the impact will be immense for readers seeing themselves in author Elle McNicoll's fantastic, captivating and ultimately uplifting stories.

224 pages / Reviewed by Jennifer Caddick, teacher