Olivia's Book Review: RULES

Title: Rules
Author: Cynthia Lord
Publisher: Scholastic
Place and year of publication:  New York, 2006
Number of pages: 200
Where you found the book: school library

Story Review:
12 year old Catherine just wants a normal life. Since her brother has autism, her parents don't pay attention to her and her needs. To keep her little brother out of trouble, she makes rules for him like "no toys in the fish tank" or "keep your pants on in public". Catherine's best friend goes to Florida every summer to live with her dad, and when Catherine's new neighbour Kristi moves in, she hopes that they will become friends. The themes in this book are strictness, routines, romance, and being worried. This story takes place in North America, in the summer. This book is called "Rules" because Catherine is always making rules for her brother to keep him in order without him embarrassing him and herself. The main characters in this book are Catherine, her little brother David, Kristi, Ryan, and a new interesting friend named Jason.

Catherine and her mother take David to the clinic every day to help him with his autism. Catherine loves to draw, so while they were waiting for David, she decides to draw a boy in a wheelchair sitting across the room. The boy's mother leans over to the boy then sharply asks Catherine to stop drawing her son. Catherine was surprised and embarrassed so she apologizes and draws something else. The next time they go to the clinic the boy in the wheelchair was there again, but when she sits down, the boy's mother wheels his chair over to her, tells her that his name is Jason, and explains to her that he cannot talk, so he uses a book that has a bunch of words with pictures beside them which he taps to make sentences. Over the weeks they became friends and Catherine makes new, exciting words for Jason.

Ryan is a boy who lives on Catherine's block who she can't stand because he always makes fun of David and takes advantage of him since he cannot help himself. But when her new neighbour Kristi comes, she likes Ryan and Ryan likes her too. Kristi sees the picture that Catherine had drawn of Jason and asks if he is Catherine's boyfriend. Embarrassed she says no and doesn't want to tell her that he is a disabled boy because she doesn't know what Kristi will think of her. One day Catherine and Kristi go to the pond to swim. While they are there Ryan comes to the shore, so they get out of the water to meet him. Ryan asks if Kristi has asked Catherine yet. Confused, Catherine asks what they're talking about. Kristi asks Catherine if she wants to go to the dance with them on Saturday night. Catherine was pretty sure that the only reason she asked her was because she wasn't allowed to go by herself, and one of Catherine's rules is "no dancing in public unless it's pitch black", so she tries making excuses not to go.

At the clinic the next day Jason asks Catherine if she wants to come to his birthday party on Saturday. luckily, it was the same day as the dance so she agrees to come. She tells Kristi that she was going to Jason's party and that she was invited too, even though she knew Kristi couldn't come. At the party Jason asks why Kristi didn't come along, Catherine explains that Kristi is going to a dance in the evening with Ryan. Jason asks if Catherine wants to go to the dance with him but Catherine hesitates and looks away. Jason asks if she was embarrassed of him and she says "no, it's just that I doesn't like dancing". But Jason knows better and says that that is a stupid excuse and wheels his chair out of the room. The party's over. Catherine feels really bad and decides to make it up to Jason and see if he wants to go to the dance after all. When she calls, Jason's mother says he probably won't come, but Catherine begs and then waits at the dance for Jason to come. Will Jason ever show up and make up with her? Or is their friendship ruined forever?

Christian Perspective:
This book was not written in a christian perspective. Catherine had patience with her little brother, but sometimes she got fed up with him, which is understandable. She was always too worried about what Kristi and other people would think of her and that they would think she's weird for having a handicapped friend. Instead of shying away from the truth about Jason when Kristi asked, she could have just told her the truth and not be worried about it so much. And instead of worrying about her little brother always messing up or making Catherine and himself  look stupid, just to accept him the way he is just like Jesus would have done.

Your Thoughts:
I chose this book because it looked interesting and a few of my friends had read it and told me I should read it too. I really liked this book because it talks about things that a normal teenager would have to deal with in  life, like fitting in, and family and friend problems. I didn't really like the ending of the book because to me it felt like it wasn't finished or there was a page missing or something, but otherwise the story was very good. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes realistic fiction books, or something they can relate to. I would also recommend this book to teenagers with younger siblings or a difficult relationship with friends, and it might give you some guidance.