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Title: Rules
Author: Cynthia Lord
Published By: Scholastic Press (2006)
Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She’s spent years trying to teach David the rules-from “a peach is not a funny-looking apple” to “keep your pants on in public”-in order to stop his embarrassing behaviors. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a paraplegic boy, and Kristi, the next-door friend she’s always wished for, it’s her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal? (Taken from Goodreads)
Review:
This was an incredible book! The characters were so vivid. You love them; you laugh with them, you cry with them. You relate and sympathize with Catherine, and you smile at David, and then you smile bigger when Jason comes into the scene.
Personally, Jason was my favorite character. He was written so well, that beyond his disorder you see him as a normal kid, reminding me of Melody from Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. I loved his hidden personality, his ambition, his friendship with Catherine.
And David. David was written very well too. This book truly captured the reality of autism and the other disorders, to the point where I came off this book knowing more than I did before. David as a character was realistic and loveable. Even though we see him through Catherine’s eyes and her perspective that he is rather annoying, you still love him.
Catherine’s character was probably the best done of them all. We see the world through her eyes; her emotions and feelings are one hundred percent realistic and believable, and we love her for her kind spirit and her good heart; that even when she thinks things that aren’t the nicest, we know she doesn’t truly mean it and it isn’t who she is—it’s just her way of trying to express her complicated emotions.
The author just did an amazing job with this book. Even though there’s no action, this book was written beautifully—just capturing a few weeks in the mind of a girl like Catherine.
Negative Content:
None.
Overall:
This was one of those books that ended too soon…I just wanted to keep reading about David and Catherine and Jason forever. I just LOVED Rules!
Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Recommended to: All ages!