Rules

Lord, C.  (2006).  Rules.  New York:  Scholastic Press.

Catherine is a young girl who is constantly looking out for her little brother, David, who has autism.  And though she loves her brother, she can’t help but wish sometimes that David was ‘normal’ and that she wouldn’t have to deal with people’s misunderstandings of David’s behavior.  However, after she befriends Jason, a non-verbal paraplegic boy at her brother’s occupational therapy clinic, she slowly begins to find acceptance for the situations she can’t change and realizes that it doesn’t matter what other people think.  The idiom ‘some rules are meant to be broken,’ along with acceptance and the importance of communication amongst family members and friends, are themes that any secondary kid will be able to connect to.  Many readers will be able to empathize and identify with Catherine’s self-consciousness as she struggles to find her voice within her family and society, especially after she meets Jason and her new next door neighbor, Kristi.  This is a 2007 Newbery Honor Book and a Schneider Family Book Winner for Here is the link to the book’s website: http://cynthialord.com/rules.html