Waiting For No One

"Woozles' Battle of the Books" Teen List Title, 2012

Taylor Jane Simon is an eighteen-year-old girl with Asperger's Syndrome who has a refreshingly different view of the people she encounters and the life she wants to have. Young adult readers will identify with Taylor's struggle for independence and self-control, and empathize as she outlines the ways-both positive and negative-- that her Asperger's Syndrome affects her daily life. Connecting with a play by Samuel Beckett, Taylor explores a fear of solitary existence while reaching out to a world at times perplexing. Most important, Taylor wants to be seen as an individual, not as a stereotypical "person with special needs," or a rare wild flower-images that haunt her from the past. A cameo performance by Taylor's new gerbil -- Harold Pinter-- adds further emphasis to themes of existentialism and humour.
Waiting for No One is the stand-alone sequel to Wild Orchid, which was shortlisted for the Canadian Library Association's prestigious Young Adult Book Award, a number of provincial readers' choice awards, and is a starred selection from the Canadian Children's Book Centre. Wild Orchid also appears on the New York Public Library's list of Recommended Books for the teens.