Rules

Title: Rules

Author: Cynthia Lord

Publisher: Scholastic

Place and year of publication: New York, 2006

Number of pages: 200

Where I found this book: school’s library

Story review:

Catherine is a twelve year old, who has an autistic brother named David. With her brother’s autism it makes her life a little complicated, so she makes rules for her brother. So that he would understand the world and I also think this book’s name is Rules because she makes rules her brother.

While Catherine and her mom take David to occupational therapy, there she meets a boy named Jason. He cannot speak and has to use a wheelchair. He uses a communication book to communicate to people. In that book he has plain and boring looking words mentioned by Catherine herself. Catherine got a chance to make some words for him. The only thing she did differently was that she added colours to her cards. One day her friend Kristi asked if Jason would like to join Catherine to the community dance. The problem was that she never mentioned anything about Jason’s disability to Kristi. Because she didn’t know how Kristi would react.

By the end of the book, she begins to ask herself, what is normal? During the book, Catherine learns to accept herself, her family, and Jason just the way they are. She also learns not to be scared of what people think about her. The most important thing is that she learns to deal with her life and brother.

I think the themes of this book are acceptance and disabilities because Catherine had a hard time accepting David’s disabilities.

Christian perspective:

I don’t think this book was written from a Christian prespective. When Catherine felt alone and neglected by her parents, she should have went and prayed to God because God would never leave her and neglect her. We are his children and he loves us deeply and no matter what happens He would never abandon us. The other thing is that she still wished that her brother was normal but God made him that way and she should accept him just the way he is.

My thoughts:

I enjoyed the book. I liked how she learned to accept people just the way they are and that she shouldn’t be scared of what people think about her. I think Cynthia Lord was trying to tell her readers that no one is perfect. There are flaws in everybody, not just with people with special needs.We all try to make things perfect, but sometimes things don’t end up the way we want them to be. I would recommend this book to a person who loves realistic fiction books and especially those people who have to grow up with a brother or a sister with a disability.