“Rules,” by Cynthia Lord is a touching story about a girl who must change her attitude about what is “normal” and learn to appreciate her autistic younger brother and a surprising new friend who is confined to a wheelchair.Like most other twelve-year-olds Catherine wants to have friends and live a fairly normal life. Unfortunately, neither of these goals seem obtainable. Catherine’s autistic younger brother David always seems to chase off potential friends. When other girls learn about Catherine’s brother they treat her differently as well. Catherine’s parents tell her that if the other girls can’t accept David then they wouldn’t make good friends anyway.
But Catherine still wishes that her brother was normal.
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Book Review of "Rules" by Cynthia Lord
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4 replies so far. What are your thoughts?
I like the words Katherine gave Jason. That made the book about more than just disability, for me. It became partly about her ability to imagine what it's like to be him, which is part of many girls' adolescence.
The way I looked at it was that it was a way for Catherine to share her own life with Jason.
Interestingly the words that she gave Jason were more based on her own life and experiences than they were on Jason's. So she shared words such as "guinea pig" to tell him about her pet. When she was angry and depressed she shared words like "murky," etc.
To some extent the words were a way of imagining what it was like to be him, but it was also a way of her telling him about herself.
It isn't until the end of the book that Catherine really accepts Jason's disability. Even when she made the "together" card more than three-fourths of the way through "Rules" she drew Jason without his wheelchair. She still didn't want to face his disability, just like she didn't want to face her brother's disability.
So in the end, it seemed to me that facing disability was the main theme of the book. But she faced disability by imagining what Jason's life must be like.
Thanks for commenting Jeanne.
I thought this book was a good book because this can relate to anybody who has a brother or sister with autisim and they shouldn't feel embarrest about that. They can always go back and look at this book and see how Catherine handled the sittuation.
Good point. Cynthia Lord uses "Rules" to show readers healthy ways of coping with autism. I think that many young readers with disabled siblings will benefit from reading about Catherine.
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