Description:

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork is a novel about 17-year-old Marcelo Sandoval, a thoughtful teenager on the autism spectrum who has spent most of his life in a specialized school. When his father insists that Marcelo work for the summer in his law firm’s mailroom instead of returning to his familiar school, Marcelo is thrust into what his father calls “the real world.” As he navigates new friendships, workplace relationships, first love, and ethical dilemmas, Marcelo begins to understand justice, independence, and the importance of making his own moral choices. The novel explores themes of neurodiversity, identity, integrity, empathy, and growing into adulthood. 

Discussion Questions:

• What did you know about autism or people on the autism spectrum before reading the book? Have you ever known anyone with autism? What did you learn about this disability from reading the book?
• If you meet someone now, after reading this novel, how will you interact with that person? Do you think the book changed how you might perceive them?
• Having read the book, what do you think the ‘moral’ of the story is? What is the lesson(s) that the reader learns through the novel? Explain your answer.

(Questions are from Educator’s Guide to Teaching Latin American Culture through literature)