Wild Orchid

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Reading Wild Orchid is like visiting a foreign land, but one in which
your interpreter seemingly has not quite mastered the nuances of the
English language or the subtleties of social interactions. However,
Brenna, a Saskatchewan special-education teacher, does not take her
readers out of Canada. Instead, she immerses them in the mind and
actions of Taylor Jane Simon, 18Ѕ, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, a
form of autism. Having just completed high school in Saskatoon, Taylor
is now confronted with determining her future. More immediately, though,
the teen, who enjoys the security of routine, faces the uncertainties
connected with her having to join her mother, Penny, in going to
Waskesiu in Saskatchewan’s Prince Albert National Park, where Penny
will work for the summer in her most recent boyfriend’s restaurant.
Taylor has heeded her English teacher’s suggestion to keep a journal
to let off steam, and it is these dated and titled entries, which Taylor
calls “essays,” that readers follow from Saturday, June 29, to
Friday, August 2.

Initially unsettled by, and fearful about, almost everything in the new
locale, Taylor comes to find a new security. In the same fashion that
wild orchids, like the yellow lady’s slipper, require the right
environment in order to thrive, so Taylor has had to find the correct
conditions for her to blossom in independence. Although Taylor’s
literal interpretations of the figurative use of English and her
“awkward” reactions in social situations, especially those involving
boys, are often humorous, readers never laugh at her, because Brenna
skilfully portrays the internal “logic” of Taylor’s responses.
Highly recommended.