Rules by Cynthia Lord
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Audience: 9 and up
Rating: B+
Synopsis:
Catherine spends a lot of time wishing that her brother would wake up and be magically ‘healed.’ He’s autistic, and as much as she loves him, she’s tired of him messing up her life and embarrassing her. Mostly Catherine wishes that other people would be more tolerant and understanding. When Catherine makes two new friends, pretty, out-going Kristi and wheelchair-bound Jason, she learns something new about herself. Maybe she isn’t as tolerant as she thought she was. She certainly doesn’t want Kristi to find out about Jason, which could be a problem because both of them want her to attend a summer dance.
Chatter:
(Spoiler Alerts! ) It can’t be easy for Catherine to have a younger brother who’s autistic. Especially since her parents depend on her to watch him and bring him around her friends. But despite these things, Catherine is very protective of her younger brother and truly tries to make everything easier for him. It must be very tricky trying to figure out ‘rules’ to teach David social cues, but I can’t imagine how he’d learn them without her.
Kristi was an interesting character. It’s hard to make any judgements about her because Catherine so badly wanted to like her that I’m not sure we have an accurate picture of what she was like. The scene in Catherine’s bedroom where Kristi asks David to dance doesn’t seem like she’s teasing. And at the dance she seems truly upset that Catherine was purposely vague about Jason. Could the two of them be friends? I’m not sure. After all, Kristi is the same girl who only wanted Catherine to go to the dance so that she could attend with that jerk Ryan!
One of the coolest parts about this book is how much Catherine reveals about herself through the cards she makes for Jason. When she’s creating and explaining them it’s like a sneak peek into her inner emotions. At the end Catherine says she won’t make any new cards unless Jason asks for them. Why?
Questions:
Will Kristi and Catherine continue to be/ become friends?
Will Catherine continue her friendship with Jason?
What did Catherine learn about herself this summer?
Which of David’s rules do you think is the most important?
What new rule would you give to David? (Or new word for Jason?)
Keep reading!
-Paige
kenzly Says:
what’s the genre?
Paige Turner Says:
Realistic Fiction!
Keep Reading,
Paige
BTA Says:
What new rule would I give to David?
I would tell David that is not all about himself and he shoudl think about others because he always got his way and never was told the word No.
LaLa Says:
I have been reading this boook for like 3 days now ? Its amazing bacause girls can relate to this book with there life. Also, many suffer from autism so they know how it feels to always be stared at. this book is sad yet funny ! I 101% reccomend this book! You will laugh for hours !
Bri Bri Says:
I loved this book, and now my friend is reading it, too! Many girls in my class read it, and i enjoyed it a lot. I loved how it explained the clinic and how the girl had a boy friend, and he was nice to the boy, even when he had problems=[ =]
Lexi Lou Says:
A new word I would give to Jason is tolerance, because he seems to have a lot of tolerance, and a lot of people around him need to be tolerant, so i think that it would be a card that he would use often.