Here’s an interview with Erika Hammerschmidt about the book:
http://marshaamoore.blogspot.ca/2011/05/coauthors-erika-hammerschmidt-john-c.html
Choice excerpts:
The patronizing speech of Kea’s teachers— its sweet droning sound, the over-use of phrases like “good choice” and “poor choice,” the predominance of the phrase “you need to” as a command— is straight from my real junior-high special-ed experience.
They spent the entire critique session telling me that my experience from junior high school could never have happened. That was when I learned that there is a certain divide in literature between realism and believability.