The book, a coming-of-age story, focuses on the unique struggles of an autistic gay African-American teen.
Getting By introduces readers to Carver Goodman—a high school junior living in Chicago whose main goal for the year is studying for and getting a good score on the ACT exam. However, his path to fulfilling his objective is filled with the trials of life: bullies, a recent autism diagnosis, first romance and the desire to determine his own sexuality.
“I wanted to write a story for people like me,” said Sims in a statement. “During my teen years I noticed that finding books with Black, gay or autistic protagonists was difficult and mostly non-existent. My goal with this novel was to give today’s readers an option that better reflects who they uniquely are, and hopefully show them that they too can write and add their own voices to these underserved communities.”
Getting By is available through http://BookBaby.com and online booksellers. Also, see http://JaireSims.com.