No Brain the Same
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Lindsay H. Metcalf, editor
Lindsay H. Metcalf grew up on a Kansas farm and is the author of Farmers Unite! Planting a Protest for Fair Prices. An experienced journalist, Lindsay has covered a variety of change-makers as a reporter, editor, and columnist for the Kansas City Star and other news outlets.
Read more about Lindsay.
Keila V. Dawson, editor
Keila V. Dawson was born and raised in New Orleans. She has been a community organizer and an early childhood special education teacher. She has lived in the Phillipines, Japan, and Egypt. She is the author of Opening The Road.
Read more about Keila.
Jeanette Bradley, editor-illustrator
Jeanette Bradley has been an urban planner, an apprentice pastry chef, and the artist-in-residence for a traveling art museum on a train. She is the author and illustrator of Love, Mama. Jeanette lives in Rhode Island with her wife and kids.
Read more about Jeanette.
- Coming soon!
Kirkus Reviews
Poets introduce 14 neurodivergent trailblazers.
Using poetic forms as diverse as their subjects, authors sharing aspects of these young people’s identities celebrate their bravery and creativity. Some figures will likely be familiar, such as singer Billie Eilish, “a girl with Tourette’s” who “turned tics into chords”; others may be new to readers, like Liam Garner, an autistic youth who biked from Alaska to Argentina. A brief biography and a motivational tip (“Use your unique perspective to solve problems”) follow each poem. Bradley’s photorealistic illustrations convey subjects’ joy and determination. Some lines feel cliched, as when Vanessa Brantley-Newton’s double couplet series “Her Name Means Light” proclaims Helena Donato-Sapp—an anti-bullying advocate with ADHD, visual processing and memory disorders, and dyscalculia—“young yet wise beyond her years.” Others are thought provoking; Sally J. Pla’s free-verse intro to Dara McAnulty, who is autistic and who wrote the award-winning A Young Naturalist’s Diary, concludes that “saving Nature / is the only way / we can save / ourselves.” Hannah Emerson’s “Dear Adam” echoes the cadence of nonspeaking autistic poet Adam Wolfond (who communicates with a text-to-speech app): “floating reality / becoming dear great treeing / named Adam yes yes.” A list of affirmations matched to each subject (“You are not broken. Helena refuses shame for her identities”) summarizes the encouraging collection. Backmatter includes author information and defines terms, poetic forms, and conditions portrayed here, which include Down syndrome, anxiety, and stuttering.
Eclectic and empowering.
Children's Literature
The fourteen young international activists showcased in this book identify as neurodivergent (ADHD, Tourette’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, depression, OCD, Down syndrome, or dyspraxia). Each one uses their strengths to advocate for change. A full spread introduces each activist and includes a digitally created portrait that often looks like a realistic but informal pastel sketch. The spread also includes a poem about that activist and a short action suggestion for the reader based on the activist’s process. Readers may be familiar with some of the activists, like singer Billie Eilish, Molly Seidel (a US Olympic Marathon medal winner), and Cillian O’Connor (a magician seen on America’s Got Talent), but others will be new role models, such as someone who writes about how time in nature is healing, invents and helps improve equipment for the physically disabled, bikes from the top of the world to the bottom, or changes public policy around domestic abuse or school shootings. Backmatter encourages readers to believe in themselves and their potential as activists, too. Additional backmatter includes brief biographies of the contributing poets and what inspired them, a glossary of terms related to neurodivergency, and definitions of the poetry forms used in the text.
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-62354-583-3
Ages: 5–9
Page count: 40
10 x 10
Publication date: June 2, 2026



