Things Seen from Above by Shelley Pearsall (review)

At the beginning of sixth grade, April decides she'd rather be a volunteer helper for the fourth-grade recess than face her classmates at lunch. During her recess volunteering, April begins to wonder about fourth-grade loner Joey Byrd, who spends his time shuffling through the wood chips or lying on the ground with his eyes closed. With the help of the custodian and another volunteer, April discovers that Joey is drawing giant pictures in the woodchips, but when word gets out, Joey starts to get a lot of attention, attention he doesn't want. This is an accessibly written account, moving between April's and Joey's narrations, of a significant near-peer encounter and some surprising artistic creation. Unfortunately, April's relationship with and perspective on Joey is shallow, and no one in the book provides help in understanding him, with some evasion of the possibility of his neurodiversity. However, readers will be intrigued by Joey's skill in creating precise, giant drawings that can only be seen from above; the author's note explains that Pearsall has a nephew who could do this when he was a child, and a black and white picture of one of his playground drawings is included.