(Source: Lord, Cynthia. 2006. New York: Scholastic Press. Photo Source: Barnes and Noble, http://www.barnesandnoble.com/, accessed November 13, 2008)
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lord, Cynthia. 2006. Rules. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN: 0-439-44382-2. Lord, Cynthia. 2006. Rules. Audio CD. Prince Frederick, MD : Recorded Books. ISBN: 9781428152113.
2. PLOT SUMMARY: Catherine is a twelve year old girl with a lot to deal with. She is coping with the usual adolescent issues related to friends and boys while at the same time dealing with having a sibling who is autistic and parents who expect a lot from her. She sometimes thinks that her parents don’t even realize she exists. It is a poignant story of a sister who patiently watches over her brother while feeling the frustration and stigma of his disability. She makes “rules” for him to follow to help him be more “normal”. Thanks to her first hand experience with persons having disabilities, she is able to befriend a peer, Jason, who is physically disabled. She comes to understand better the feelings of the disabled peer and how others treat him.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS: The characters in Rules are ones that every young child can relate to or learn from. Catherine is a twelve-year old girl who misses her best friend because she has gone away for the summer; who is hopeful about a new friendship with a neighbor moving in next door; and who gets frustrated by the school bully who picks on her brother. Catherine is a bit unusual in the fact that she has an eight-year old brother with autism. Her brother, David, is a character that children may or may not relate to. With the rise in the rate of autism in this country, it may be that most children have met at least one autistic child in their lives and, therefore, will be able to relate to David better than we might think. If the reader cannot relate directly to David, they can certainly learn about autism from this character. Christy is the self-centered twelve-year old girl who moves in next door and who has little compassion for the disabled characters in the book. Most readers will be familiar with this type of character. Catherine’s mom and dad are portrayed in a manner familiar to most children. Mom is busy and asks Catherine to babysit David a lot or tells David to “go see what Catherine is doing”. Dad is always late and never home when he says he will be. The final major character is Jason, a teen-age, paraplegic boy who is wheelchair bound and communicates through a communication word book located on a tray on the wheelchair. This character may be totally unfamiliar to most readers.
The title of the book comes from all of the rules Catherine writes for her brother. The rules are social rules that most of us take for granted. Things like “say ‘thank you’ when someone gives you a present (even if you don’t like it)” and “a boy can take off his shirt to swim, but not his shorts”. The cover of the book is explained when you read that one of the rules is "no toys in the fish tank". These types of rules are exactly what one would teach an autistic person. Another thing that is typical of autistic persons is the recitation of words from books. In Rules, Catherine and David often speak using lines from Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad are friends. The realistic portrayal of life with an autistic individual will be appreciated by many readers who know something about autism. For those who do not know much about autism, these issues are a subtle part of the book that could be elaborated on in a book discussion.
The setting for this story is modern day America. It could be in any town, on any street and in any neighborhood. The reader can envision his or her own neighborhood or house. The van Catherine’s mom drives is typical of modern day transportation for families. The shops, the parks, the therapist’s office and more are all typical of today’s society. Since these locations and items will not change anytime soon, the setting makes this book rather timeless. I anticipate that it will be as relevant in ten years as it is today.
The theme of this book is primarily about compassion and understanding toward people with disabilities. It is important to note the many underlying, sub-themes that Catherine struggles with. These are items that any teenager would struggle with if they were in Catherine’s shoes. These sub-themes include:
1. Desire to be compassionate to people with disabilities v. desire to be popular (unfortunately, the two are sometimes mutually exclusive, especially at the middle school age)
2. Willingness to help mom/dad babysit David because she knows they need help v. wanting mom/dad to take care of David themselves because David is not her responsibility;
3. Understanding David’s need for more parent attention v. desire for parents to pay more attention to her;
4. Befriending Jason, the disabled teen, in private v. publicly acknowledging her friendship with Jason;
5. Getting mad at David because of his behavior v. getting mad at the girl next door for do something that makes David look stupid;
6. Wishing David would stop his autistic behaviors in public v. sometimes wishing David would exhibit his autistic behaviors in public to satisfy her own personal needs; and
7. Wishing David would stop his autistic behaviors so she wouldn’t be embarrassed and could have a normal life v. wishing David would stop his autistic behaviors so he could have a normal life.
The only negative comment I can make about this story is concerning Catherine’s lack of anger toward her parents. There were instances in the book that most children would have become very angry at their parents. This anger was never acknowledged or explored. It is not realistic to think that a child Catherine’s age would be totally understanding of parents who focused so much attention on David. Overall, however, this book is a wonderful read and should be recommended with gusto in middle school libraries everywhere.
ANALYSIS OF AUDIO BOOK: I chose to listen to this book on audio. The unabridged audio version is a four hour, four compact disc set. The cover of the audiobook is slightly different than the book shown at the beginning of this review. The audiobook cover has a toy car that has been plopped into the fish tank (as evidenced by the water splashing above the water line) instead of a rubber duck. A similar goldfish is on the cover of the audiobook to indicate the fish tank. The back side of the audiobook cover contains a brief synopsis of the book along with information about Cynthia Lord and about the publisher of the recorded book, Recorded Books, LLC. The book is read by Jessica Almasy. Ms. Almasy did a marvelous job reading this story. It is difficult to describe her voice; but I would say that it is childlike, without being high pitched. This story is told from Catherine’s perspective. Ms. Almasy sounded like a twelve year old girl would sound which added a sense of authenticity to the reading. She changed her voice slightly for each of the different characters and maintained the dialect for each one throughout the entirety of the reading. There are no other readers of the book on the CD. The sound quality is very good, the volume is acceptable and the pronunciation is clear. There are no sound effects or music on the CD. There is no other background noise of any type.
It was a joy to listen to this book on CD. I tried to read some of the book after listening to the entire CD and I cannot read the book without hearing the voice of Ms. Almasy as Catherine as well as the other characters. The CD was a totally absorbing experience. I found myself being lost in the world of the book as I drove down the highway. I know that this book would be equally interesting to read but I found the audio to be very enjoyable, informative and entertaining.
4. BOOK REVIEW EXCERPT(S):
BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S BOOKS , 59, no. 9 (May 2006) 411: “Readers will sympathize with Catherine's struggle to explain the world to David through his beloved rules and her frustration at his demanding, embarrassing behaviors and his garnering the majority of parental attention.” (Source: Book Review Digest Plus, WilsonWeb database, accessed via TWU Library Online).
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, (April 1, 2006) 142: “Lord has candidly captured the delicate dynamics in a family that revolves around a child's disability.” (Source: Book Index with Reviews, EBSCO Host database, accessed via TWU Library Online).
KIRKUS REVIEWS, (March 1, 2006): “Middle-grade readers will recognize [Catherine’s] longing for acceptance and be intrigued by this exploration of dealing with differences.” (Source: Book Index with Reviews, EBSCO Host database, accessed via TWU Library Online).
5. CONNECTIONS IN A SCHOOL LIBRARY SETTING:
* This would be a good book to recommend as reading to mainstream teachers who has students who are disabled in their classroom.
* This would be a good book to recommend to counselors who may, in turn, have opportunities to recommend to students who struggle with some of the same issues Catherine struggled with or perhaps for those students who are having trouble showing compassion to disabled individuals.
* In a library display of this book, the librarian could write down on poster board the rules set forth in the book and ask students to suggest additional rules to add to the list.
* Children who have read the book could discuss what words they would want in a communication book, if they could only speak with such a device.
Other related items:
Different Like Me by Jennifer Elder, Illustrated by Marc Thomas and Jennifer Elder
My thirteenth winter: A memoir by Samantha Abeel
Embracing the sky: Poems beyond disability by Craig Romkema
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