Sally J. Pla always knew she was different. Like many adults of a certain age, she remembers her youth as a time of confusion, often attempting to understand why she was — in her own words — “too sensitive,” “too shy” and “too silent.”
“I could never get anything out,” says Pla, from her home in Encinitas. “I couldn’t respond in time to the other girls, to have that rhythm and social rapport with them, where I was an accepted kid.”
What she could do, however, once she was home from school and in the quiet of her room, was draw and write down these experiences in the hope of understanding them more. She says this helped her develop skills that would help her navigate the often tricky minefield of childhood. This was especially helpful, she says, considering there were often no characters in literature that she found relatable.
“I never saw myself in books when I was a kid. I would mainly read nonfiction biographies and stuff, trying to figure out how they did it,” Pla reflects. “I was looking for rules, a guidebook, I would even read etiquette books. There was nothing out there when it came to literature where I felt like I related to the character.”
This mindset, and her desire to change it, has been evident in Pla’s decade-plus career as an author. It wasn’t until she was well into her 40s, working for the most part as a business journalist, that she was diagnosed with a form of autism herself. Like many, she says the diagnosis helped to answer so many questions she’d been struggling to answer her whole life. It also presented an opportunity to correct what she saw as an oversight within children’s literature publishing: to facilitate more representation when it comes to characters with neurodivergent diagnoses, offering young readers the opportunity to see themselves within stories.
Encinitas author Sally J. Pla.
(Courtesy of Stephanie Sundell)
“There just weren’t many stories out there that were like my own experiences or my experiences with my own family,” says Pla, who has three children herself and often refers to the neurodivergent “spectrum” as more resembling a “constellation.”
“I read a few and I didn’t like the types of representation I was seeing. It was kind of horrifying. I call it ‘inspiration porn.’ Stories of the annoying brother that was like a ball-and-chain and the poor sister learns to accept and grow because of his disability. But there were no stories that actually celebrated that kid in all their glory and his differences. Being a normal kid having life experiences and adventures.”
This is no more evident than in her new book, “The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn,” and it might be Pla’s most personal statement to date. This is her third novel, in addition to writing two picture books. In this book, the titular teenage protagonist of the novel isn’t unlike Pla herself at that age, doing her best to cope with the onslaught of emotions that come with adolescence while also learning to navigate her own form of autism.
“When I was young, there were huge stretches where I wouldn’t even speak at all because I would just get overwhelmed with school and everything else that was going on,” says Pla. “In the book, Maudie has the same kinds of glitches, a little time delay where it sometimes takes her longer to process what people are saying to her. And I wrote that because it was my experience as a young kid. It was like I was a spectator and that it would take longer to process.”
Book jacket for Sally J. Pla’s novel “The Fire, The Water, and Maudie McGinn.”
(Courtesy of Harper Collins)
Written tenderly in the first- and second-person, Maudie finds herself essentially camped out within a small beach community after she and her father, who she is visiting for the summer, are forced to evacuate his cabin after a wildfire. Once at the beach, she learns to surf and struggles to fit in while also trying to decide whether or not to tell her father about the abusive situation that awaits her once she returns home to her mother and stepfather.
“It’s all about figuring out how to be a person in the world and I think that’s what middle grade literature as a whole is,” Pla says. “That’s even more true for the autistic middle grade story,”
Pla says she was inspired by taking daily walks along the coast of Cardiff-by-the-Sea, taking in the families and campgrounds that pepper the coast and reflecting on how inclusive communities can really help to support and even save children with neurodivergent diagnoses.
“I’d see the RVs and people camping or having barbecues and I just began imaging this community,” Pla reflects. “I fell in love with community as a character—that thought of what a great community this would be to set a story in and what kind of community that would be for Maudie. It started with the setting and Maudie just came to me.”
“I really wanted to create a place where she’s stripped down to nothing,” Pla continues. “They’re evacuated because of the fire. They’ve lost all their belongings and all they really have is the goodwill of the people around them. And that’s what it takes and, in the end, that’s what really saves us — that community and that acceptance from others.”
In addition to being appealing to YA audiences, another potential benefit of the new novel is how older readers and parents of autistic children may be able to see themselves within the character of Maudie’s father.
“Maudie’s dad is neurodivergent himself, but like many people he grew up in an era where that wasn’t really detected,” says Pla, who also offers discussion questions, education resources and information about child welfare organizations in her books and her website. “He respects Maudie and takes her at face value. His attitude is calm and loving, a huge contrast to Maudie’s mother and stepdad, who are uptight, anxious and look at Maudie as a reflection of their own failures and identity.”
Besides writing her own books, Pla is also the co-founded and editor of A Novel Mind, a database-based website devoted to children’s books that deal in neurodiversity and mental health. She has already finished a new novel (“Invisible Isabel’’) as well as a new children’s book, “Ada and Zaz,” which is part of the Collins Big Cat series of picture books from neurodivergent authors and illustrators. Pla sees it all as a way to give back, to let neurodivergent children know they’re not alone.
“I think it takes a lot of autistic and neurodivergent kids a bit longer, and their parents can get frustrated,” Pla says. “I just want to reassure them. I just want to tell them they’re going to get there. Everyone is on their own time schedule.”
“The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn” by Sally J. Pla (Quill Tree Books, 2023: 336 pages)
Warwick’s presents Sally J. Pla
When: 4 p.m. Tuesday
Where: La Jolla Riford Library, 7555 Draper Ave., La Jolla
Admission: Free
Online: warwicks.com
Combs is a freelance writer.