This novel was well written, but I didn't think it was very appealing to kids. I don't know it wasn't very compelling to read. I think the people that will be the most interested in are those that are interested in the setting of the novel on Alcatraz. I also think this might appeal to students trying to understand autism in a sibling.

Favorite Quotesp. 8 ...sitzpinkler...[from footnote]A German word, slang for "wimp," that literally means "a man who sits to pee." Those wacky Germans--they've got a word for everything.p. 24 "It's a road trip! It's about adventure!" Hassan pounded on the steering wheel to emphasize his excitement. "It's not like we have somewhere to go."I have always loved the idea of taking a road trip without a destination in mind, but I think I am too much of a planner for that.p. 34 It was not the way Curve smelled that Colin liked--not exactly. It was the way the air smelled just as Lindsey began to jog away from him. The smell the perfume left behind. There's not a word for that in English, but Colin knew the French word: sillage. What Colin liked about Curve was not its smell on the skin but its sillage, the fruity sweet smell of its leaving.p. 76 The act of leaning in to kiss someone, or asking to kiss them, is fraught with the possibility of rejection, so the person least likely to get rejected should do the leaning in or the asking. And that person, at least in high school heterosexual relationships, is definitely the girl. Think about it: boys basically, want to kiss girls. Guys want to make out. Always. Hassan aside, there's rarely a time when a boy is thinking, "Eh, I think I'd rather not kiss a girl today." Maybe if a guy is actually, literally on fire, he won't be thinking about hooking up. But that's about it. Whereas girls are very fickle about the business of kissing. Sometimes they want to make out; sometimes they don't. They're an impenetrable fortress of unknowability, really. Ergo: girls should always make the first move, because (a) they are, on the whole, less likely to be rejected than guys, and (b) that way, girls will never get kissed unless they want to be kissed. Unfortunately for Colin, there is nothing logical about kissing, and so his theory never worked. But because he always waited so incredibly long to kiss a girl, he rarely faced rejection.p.94-95 Lindsey is giving Colin lessons on storytelling "Okay," she said. "here's the thing about storytelling: you need a beginning, and a middle, and an end. Your stories have no plots. They're like here's something I was thinking and then the next thing I was thinking and then et cetera. You can't get away with rambling. You're Colin Singleton, Beginning Storyteller, so you've got to stick to a straight plot. "And you need a good, strong moral. Or a theme or wahtever. And the other thing is romance and adventure. You've got to put some those in. If it's a story about peeing into a lion cage, give yourself a girlfriend who notices how gigantic your winky is and then saves you from the lion at the last second by tackling you, because she's desperate to save that gorgeous, ginormous winky." Coling blushed, but Lindsey kept going. "In the beginning, you need to pee; in the middle, you do; in the end, through romance and adventure, your winky is saved from the jaws of a hungry lion by the pluck of a young girl motivated by her abiding love for giant winkies. And the moral of the story is that a heroic girlfriend, combined with a giant winky, will save you from even the most desperate situations."This part made me laugh out loud and I don't know how many times since then I have read it to someone or told someone about it. It just makes me smile!I was so excited to learn that farid is Arabic for unique. In Inkspell, one of my favorite characters is Farid (at least that is how I imagined it to be spelled, I listened to it on audio).