Colin Fischer is a delightful and intelligently-written book, somewhat reminiscent of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, written by the screenwriters who penned the movies Thor and X-Men: First Class. Colin is a wonderful character whose story is told through his journal entries, prose, and added footnotes about the extra little subjects he finds interesting along the way. The writing style very cleverly illuminates Colin's Asperger's condition, without relying on heavy description of it. Readers will be sympathetic to Colin's struggles to understand and analyze social cues via facial expressions and body language, a skill most readers take completely for granted, but that Colin must be taught with charts and pictures. The authors have a somewhat sophisticated sense of humor, and the high school characters are dealing with puberty and emotional coming of age, including interactions with the opposite sex. As such, this book would probably be most appreciated by a more mature middle schooler, or young high schooler, who can understand more grown-up vocabulary and the intricacies of high school social interaction, in addition to the family dynamics surrounding Colin's condition. Over the course of the mystery, a gun goes off during a melee in the cafeteria, and in their efforts to find the owner, Colin and Wayne track down and are chased by the Latino gang members suspected of selling it. Language is infrequent (b-tch, a-s, h-ll, b-stard), and the derogatory slur "shortbus" is used toward Colin (though he is blissfully unbothered by it).
