71 pages • 2-hour read
Good Different
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Pages 118-184Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying and ableism.
Pages 118-136 Summary
This section includes the poems: “Homework Poem,” “Dragon-Girl,” “In the Margin of My Homework Poem,” “My Poems,” “On My Way from the Bathroom,” “Wrong,” “Breathing,” “Walk,” “Secret,” “But Aren’t They?,” “Being Normal, According to Mrs. V,” “I Don’t Know,” and “Without My Rules.”
Mrs. V assigns a poetry-writing project, prompting Selah to think about her many strong emotions and wonder whether it is appropriate to express them while she is supposed to be demonstrating her best behavior. She considers what Pop would say—“‘There’s no wrong way to write a poem’” (118)—and decides to write honestly.
Her poem, “Dragon-Girl,” describes how Cleo once looked through her sketchbook and called her dragon-eye drawings “creepy.” The poem explores the complexity of eyes—their emotional expressiveness and the difficulty that Selah has with maintaining eye contact. She contrasts this with dragon eyes, explaining that “Dragons don’t say one thing and mean another […] Dragons don’t have petty social rituals” (120). She writes about dragons’ diversity and resilience and suggests that although she is not a dragon, she hit Addie in a moment that felt “dragon-like.” When Mrs. V returns the poem, she includes a note saying that she also sometimes wishes she were a dragon.
Selah discovers that she enjoys writing poetry. Sharing her poems with Mrs. V, who responds warmly, makes Selah feel valued. She writes whenever she can, finding that poetry helps her to process her feelings.
One day, while returning from the bathroom, Selah overhears a parent complaining that she should not be allowed to remain at Pebblecreek. Panicking, Selah hides in a bathroom stall and spirals into the belief that she was “right”—“no one wants the real Selah inside just the bootleg imitation of a girl she pretended to be” (126). She stays there until the period ends, when Mrs. V finds her still inside the stall. When Selah emerges, she begins to cry. Mrs. V offers to take her to the office to call home, but Selah shakes her head, unable to explain how she feels. Instead, Mrs. V invites her to spend the next period together. They walk outside around the building and talk.
Selah tells Mrs. V that no one wants her at Pebblecreek. Mrs. V counters that she wants Selah to stay, though Selah doubts that Mrs. V’s opinion counts because Mrs. V is kind to everyone. Selah confides that she feels different from her classmates and follows a detailed list of rules to appear “Normal.” Mrs. V says that she understands why Selah created the rules, but she argues that they are neither real nor fair to her. She also expresses discomfort with the way people treat the word “wrong” as a synonym for “different.” She suggests that Selah could talk to her doctor about her differences and explore possible accommodations. As they go back inside, Selah reflects on Mrs. V’s advice. She recognizes that her rules may not be real, but they “feel real.” She worries that giving them up might cause her to lose control, and she wonders how other people function without such strict guidelines.
Pages 137-149 Summary
This section includes the poems: “Noelle,” “Sharing,” “Endangered Species,” “Misunderstood,” and “Misanthrope.”
Selah eats lunch alone in an empty classroom when Noelle enters and asks why she is sitting by herself. Noelle assumes that no one would “want” to eat alone. Selah snaps that she does want to be alone. Noelle gives her an invitation to her upcoming birthday party, and Selah assumes that Noelle is only inviting her out of fairness, not genuine desire. Before leaving, Noelle adds that she is aware of Cleo’s unkind behavior and has told her to stop. After Noelle walks away, Selah questions whether her defensive response was the right choice.
As Selah continues sharing her poetry with Mrs. V, her teacher encourages her to read some of her poems aloud to the class. Selah refuses, feeling too vulnerable and convinced that her classmates are not interested in understanding her.
Upon entering the school, Selah overhears Addie’s mother complaining about her. A teacher then pulls Selah aside, mistakenly assuming that she is angry when she is not, and Addie is moved to a different homeroom and no longer sits behind her. When Selah returns to her usual lunch table, the other girls avoid her, and she hears a rumor that Addie’s mother may decide to remove Addie from Pebblecreek in order to keep her away from Selah. Selah no longer feels like she is part of the “Pebblecreek family.”
After school, Ms. R keeps Selah behind. Because Selah’s handwriting looks different on an assignment, Ms. R accuses her of cheating. Selah says she did not cheat, but Ms. R suggests that she may contact Selah’s mother. Distressed, Selah begins to cry and curls up on the floor. Ms. R tries to comfort her and explains that she did not deduct any points. Selah is not concerned about her grade; she is upset that the adults at Pebblecreek do not seem to trust her anymore.
In English, the class learns the word ”misanthrope,” which is a person “who doesn’t like society or people” (48). Cleo jokes that Selah must be one. Mrs. V sends Cleo to the office for the comment, but the nickname spreads, and other students begin calling Selah “Misanthrope.” Selah reflects that she does relate to the character of Alceste in the play that they have read.
Pages 150-169 Summary
This section includes the poems: “Mom Keeps Asking Me,” “Saturday,” “Noelle and I,” “FantasyCon,” “Walking Through the Artist Alley,” “Pouring In,” “Open Mic,” “Too Much of a Good Thing,” “No More Room,” “Air,” “Earplugs,” and “Outside the Bathroom.”
Sue asks Selah why she has not been spending time with Noelle or the other girls. Selah explains that she is focusing on her schoolwork in order to prove that she belongs at Pebblecreek, but instead of being reassured, Sue looks tired.
On Saturday, it is time for FantasyCon. Selah had forgotten about the event but she now becomes excited, assuming that she will attend with Pop. Instead, Sue drives past Pop’s house and picks up Noelle, dropping the two girls off together. During the drive, Noelle chats politely with Sue, and Selah worries that Noelle seems uncomfortable—“like she can’t believe / she has to be stuck here / all day / with a school criminal” (152).
When they arrive, Selah is captivated by the decorations and costumes. Noelle jokes that she should have worn her wizard costume, and although Selah politely laughs, she does not understand the joke. Selah receives compliments on her Toothless shirt and enjoys browsing the many dragon-themed items. Noelle finds a display of Lord of the Rings artwork and happily looks through it, and Selah begins to hope that their friendship might recover. At one booth, Selah examines a silicone dragon cuff. The seller, who wears a dragon shirt herself, encourages Selah to try it on and mentions that the cuffs help her calm down when she feels overstimulated. Selah, who is unfamiliar with the term, asks what this means. The woman explains that overstimulation is a word for what happens when feelings begin “pouring in / and there’s no room / for all the feelings to go” (157). Selah recognizes the description as something that she often experiences.
Reviewing the event schedule, Selah notices an open mic room and briefly considers participating, remembering Mrs. V’s encouragement to share her poetry. As FantasyCon grows louder and more crowded, Selah feels overwhelmed but tries to “push through” her discomfort so that she can enjoy the day. During a concert, Noelle asks why Selah has been avoiding her since the incident with Addie. The comment stings, and Selah interprets it as another sign that Noelle sees her as “wrong.” When the band begins to play and the crowd erupts in cheers, the noise becomes unbearable, and Selah runs out.
She rushes into a bathroom, cutting in line and locking herself in a stall. She pulls out her notebook in an attempt to calm down, but someone knocks on the door. It is the woman with the dragon shirt. Having seen Selah leave the concert in distress, she offers her a pair of earplugs and explains that she uses them to manage sensory overload. Selah puts them in and immediately feels better.
When she leaves the bathroom, Selah finds Noelle and explains what happened. Noelle suggests that they return to Artist Alley, since the concert was too overwhelming. Selah follows, hoping that Noelle does not hate her.
Pages 170-184 Summary
This section includes the poems: “Like a Dragon,” “Bracelets,” “Wearable Words,” “Sign-Up,” “Selah, the ‘Weird Girl,’” “After My Reading,” and “That Night.”
As Selah walks through FantasyCon wearing the earplugs, she encounters another booth where a woman is giving out color-coded bracelets—green indicating comfort, yellow signaling that someone is struggling, and red showing that a person needs to be left alone. The woman explains that the bracelets help her and others on the autism spectrum to communicate their needs more easily. Selah has questions but keeps them to herself, accepting the bracelets and putting on the yellow one. At first, Noelle insists that she does not need one, but after Selah speaks positively about them, Noelle takes a set as well.
Continuing through Artist Alley, the girls pass the Cecil Ballroom, where the open-mic event is taking place. Feeling a sudden urge to share her poetry, Selah suggests they go inside. A woman with pink hair is performing onstage, and Selah notices the woman who gave her the earplugs earlier, who waves in recognition. An event volunteer asks whether they want to sign up and explains how the open mic works. Selah immediately adds her name to the list, and she and Noelle sit together until she is called.
When it is her turn, Selah reads her poem, “Selah the ‘Weird Girl,’” in which she describes how she knows others view her as strange and explains some of the challenges she faces at school and in daily life. The poem concludes with Selah expressing the idea that writing helps her to “feel like a dragon” (179). When she finishes, the audience responds with compliments and questions about her work. Later at home, Selah reflects on the experience, exhilarated by her decision to share her poem. For once, her “big feelings” are positive ones, and she realizes that her poetry can have a meaningful impact.
Pages 118-184 Analysis
Selah’s internal crisis deepens as she confronts the social and personal consequences of her outburst. A pivotal moment occurs when she overhears a parent say, “My daughter says / that girl’s always been strange […] What if something’s really / wrong / with her?” (125). These comments crystallize the social pressures that have shaped Selah’s understanding of herself. Rather than being exaggerated for dramatic effect, such remarks reflect the real-world stigma that individuals with autism often face, reinforcing Selah’s belief that showing authenticity leads to rejection. This moment confirms her greatest fear and intensifies her emotional unraveling.
The novel’s visual structure becomes a crucial tool for expressing this psychological shift, and Kuyatt uses line breaks, spacing, and alignment to mirror Selah’s mental state. The run-on, punctuation-free line—“I was right the rules were right no one wants the real Selah inside just the bootleg imitation of a girl she pretended to be” (126)—functions as a textual illustration of spiraling thoughts, conveying breathless panic and cognitive overload. By contrast, lines like “What if something’s really / wrong / with her?” (125) use the medium of poetry to physically isolate the word “wrong,” visually amplifying the accusation that Selah internalizes. Italicized thoughts, such as “Something is wrong with me” (126), further distinguish Selah’s intrusive self-blame from instances of narrative reflection. Even the spatial arrangement of overheard conversations—left-aligned for one speaker, right-aligned for another, and centered for Selah’s thoughts—highlights her sense of being caught between conflicting voices and perspectives. These stylistic choices intensify the descriptions of her emotional experience and underscore the instability of this period in Selah’s life.
Amid this turmoil, Mrs. V offers a crucial counterpoint to the social censure that Selah encounters, telling Selah, “You may have different needs / than some folks in your class, / but that doesn’t make you the ‘wrong’ version / and other people the ‘normal’ version” (33). This reframing challenges the binary thinking that Selah has internalized in response to criticism from peers and adults alike. Mrs. V’s compassion destabilizes Selah’s belief that masking is necessary for safety, planting the seeds of Self-Expression as a Tool for Advocacy. Her words open a space for Selah to imagine embracing her differences without defining them as deficiencies, even if the protagonist is not yet ready to accept that framework.
As Selah absorbs this new perspective, the poems begin incorporating increasing numbers of rhetorical questions, signaling her transition from rigid rule-following to reflective self-doubt. When she muses, “I need my rules— // don’t I?” (136), her questioning tone demonstrates the breakdown of the structure that she once relied upon to keep herself safe in an increasingly complex social world. Her later questions—“How do I find / that place / where I can finally be free / to be honest / and completely / myself?” (148)—mark her shift toward imagining a life that is not dictated by fear or performance. Kuyatt uses these questions as a way to invite readers to sit with Selah’s uncertainty and participate in her evolving self-understanding.
Imagery plays a significant role in depicting Selah’s sensory and emotional experiences. She describes feeling “padded […] in an envelope / away from the rest of the world” (167), and this metaphor simultaneously captures her dissociation and her desire for sensory relief. At the same time, her internal conflict intensifies when she says, “I thought it’d be better / more me to hide / and protect myself […] But if that’s true / then why do I feel / so squirmy and wrong inside?” (139). These lines illustrate the tension between hiding her differences and longing for greater authenticity—a conflict that is central to the novel’s analysis of The Challenges of Masking. Selah’s concern with expressing her genuine self in an unkind world is also reflected in her literary allusion to the character of Alceste from The Misanthrope (1666), for Selah notes that both she and Alceste are “tired of how confusing / and hypocritical / people can be” (148). This connection situates Selah within a larger literary tradition of characters who struggle with social norms and truth-telling, subtly elevating her emotional journey beyond the scope of a middle-school drama.
As Selah begins to imagine sharing her voice with others, the poetry that constitutes the novel itself begins to blend with her unique interest in spinning eloquent words to articulate her experiences. As she declares to the page, “I want the words out. / I want to stop holding them in” (174). Yet only when she finally meets people with similar interests does she begin to trust that her own perceptions of the world are valid. At FantasyCon, she encounters supportive figures—the dragon seller and the bracelet woman—who model the alternative norms of neurodivergent communities, where sensory differences and intense interests are normalized. Their kindness inspires Selah to consider that “sharing my poems here / can help too” (174). As she grows more empowered, this connection will later undergird her embrace of Self-Expression as a Tool for Advocacy.
Unlock all 71 pages of this Study Guide
Get in-depth, chapter-by-chapter summaries and analysis from our literary experts.
- Grasp challenging concepts with clear, comprehensive explanations
- Revisit key plot points and ideas without rereading the book
- Share impressive insights in classes and book clubs