What I Forgot to Tell You - by Pamela L Laskin & Ellen Paige (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"An insightful and beautifully rendered love-story about two rarely portrayed characters I hope we see more of."
Blair Fell, author of novels The Sign For Home & upcoming Disco Witches of Fire Island

WHAT I FORGOT TO TELL YOU is an engrossing coming-of-age love story, sans any sugar-coating, about two neurodivergent young people dealing with the often unjust, ableist world and their right and ability to find love and joy.

Insightful, touching, gut-wrenching, original and important. A book which gives voice to characters we rarely ever hear from in fiction. A story that is a resource to open our minds to other ways of experiencing the world and everyone's right to experience love and commitment.

Review Quotes

Pamela L. Laskin and Ellen Paige have written a beautifully-evoked, emotionally charged book for both a middle and high school audience, and one which explores the landscape of what it means to be "differently abled." The novel, told through a series of blogs (written by Gil) and a novel-in-progress (a story within a story), written by the main character, Jay, explores the interests and desires of a young girl with Down Syndrome, and a boy with Autism. The story draws the reader into their friendship and eventual attraction, thereby allowing readers to understand the depth of feelings of these two young people, a passion which parallels their abled counterparts. Ultimately, this is a poignant story about communication, desire and love!
- Brent Nelson, School Psychologist, Learning Disability Specialist and Administrator

About the Author

Pamela L. Laskin is a lecturer in the English Department at City College, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate Children's Writing, and directs the Poetry Outreach Center. Several of her children's and poetry books have been published. Ronit and Jamil, A Palestinian/Israeli Romeo and Juliet in verse was published by Harper Collins in 2017, and was named among the 35 books to have on your radar for 2017. Bea, a picture book, was a finalist for the Katherine Paterson Prize for Children's Fiction in 2018. She is the winner of the 2018 International Fiction Prize from Leapfrog Press, and Why No Goodbye?, an epistolary novel about the Rohingya Muslims, was published in 2019.

The Operating System published a bilingual picture book, Monster Maria, which is about Hurricane Maria, and is being used as a fundraiser for after-school programs in Puerto Rico. Linus Press published My Secret Wish about families seeking asylum, and is also being used as a fundraiser for Immigrant Families Together. The Lost Language of Crazy, a middle grade-novel, was published in November, 2021 (Atmosphere Press).

She is currently at work with Ukrainian author Vasyl Makhno on a YA novel in verse, Wisteria and Weeds, whose focus is on the war in the Ukraine, and what it means for the lives of teens. Finally, she is the 2023 recipient of Judith's Room Freedom Through Literacy Board option prize for her current novel.