The story is Taylor’s private daily journal. 'The White Bicycle' is written in first person so that the reader has a front row seat into how a teen with Asperger's Syndrome thinks, feels and responds to the world. I understand the purpose of it, and I understand what Taylor (and the reader) learned from it. Again, no one writes like this in a journal.ĥ) The plotline with Adelaide was ridiculous and underdeveloped. Instead I got stories about things that happened to her in childhood. What a missed opportunity! I wanted to read about how Taylor adjusted to her new surroundings. When I read that the narrative picked up a full month into the trip, I was astonished. We could have learned so much more about how she deals with her life by hearing about every day events in a foreign land. Taylor spent the majority of her time writing about past events. what?! A great line, but.what?!Ĥ) This book was thick on exposition and short on plot. Yet, after all this, she describes Stanley as 'a man whose fears have beaten down his choices.'. A big show is made of Taylor's inability to comprehend figurative language, like common idioms. I would have been a lot more satisfied with the voice of the book if it had simply been a first-person narrative.ģ) I appreciate the lengths to which the author goes to illustrate difficulties people with Asperger Syndrome often face in normal life. This makes for a difficult protagonist.Ģ) This book is meant to be Taylor's private journal. Because of difficulty with social interaction, people with Asperger Syndrome are often perceived as annoying by neurotypical people. Written as an epistolary novel, Wild Orchid is frank but optimistic, literal yet innocent.Ī courageous wit attends Taylor's gradual emergence as her own person, and the reader will find the exploration of Taylor's mind a revealing and heartwarming encounter.I had some major problems with this book.ġ) Taylor Jane has Asperger Syndrome. What she discovers will change her life forever. Summer also holds out the possibility of finding her own boyfriend, though Taylor isn't quite sure what that may involve.

For Taylor, whose life experience has been seriously limited, this means facing the test of meeting new people who work in the park's nature center - and facing it alone. Taylor's mother encourages her daughter to explore the park's possibilities on her own. Taylor would just as soon stay at home in Saskatoon, but because she suffers from an autistic condition called Asperger's Syndrome, she can't stay on her own. The holiday has been planned so Taylor's mother can spend time with her latest boyfriend, Danny, and work in the pizza restaurant near the park that Danny runs. Taylor Jane Simon is 18 years old and spending the summer with her mother in Prince Albert National Park.

Wild orchid by beverley brenna