The Disability Book Archive

[ID: A book cover. The background shows a chart model of the solar system against a dark starry sky. The sun is in the upper left corner of the cover. Nine circles are around the sun, with a planet on each circle in the order of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. On the last circle, a young girl with blonde hair in a pony tail and a white t-shirt. She is Pluto. There is text on each circle, from Earth to Neptune, that reads:
The title “How to Become a Planet” in pale white, red, orange, yellow and blue caps, from Earth to Uranus.
The author’s name “Nicole Melleby” in smaller blue caps on Neptune, with Neptune replacing the “o” in Nicole. Just above this, in smaller caps, the phrase “Author of Hurricane Season”. /end]

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Content Warning:

• Panic Attacks
• Self-Harm
• Suicidal Ideation
• Ableism
• Dysphoria
• Homophobia

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Summary:

For Pluto, summer has always started with a trip to the planetarium. It’s the launch to her favorite season, which also includes visits to the boardwalk arcade, working in her mom’s pizzeria, and her best friend Meredith’s birthday party. But this summer, none of that feels possible.

A month before the end of the school year, Pluto’s frightened mom broke down Pluto’s bedroom door. What came next were doctor’s appointments, a diagnosis of depression, and a big black hole that still sits on Pluto’s chest, making it too hard to do anything.

Pluto can’t explain to her mom why she can’t do the things she used to love. And it isn’t until Pluto’s dad threatens to make her move with him to the city—where he believes his money, in particular, could help—that Pluto becomes desperate enough to do whatever it takes to be the old Pluto again.

She develops a plan and a checklist: If she takes her medication, if she goes to the planetarium with her mom for her birthday, if she successfully finishes her summer school work with her tutor, if she goes to Meredith’s birthday party . . . if she does all the things that “normal” Pluto would do, she can stay with her mom in Jersey. But it takes a new therapist, a new tutor, and a new (and cute) friend with a checklist and plan of her own for Pluto to learn that there is no old and new Pluto. There’s just her.

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Notes:

There is an audiobook.

There is an ebook/Kindle edition.

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Archivist Comments:

When I was a kid and first learning about the planets, I made a silly little mnemonic to remember them and that was all I could think about when I saw the cover. And I just really love that the MC is called Pluto.

I’ve tagged this as OCD as well because one of the side characters is said to have it. The MC’s friend/potential love interest is also implied to be questioning non-binary.

Apparently there a lot of astronomy references in this book.

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