When Kristi moves in next door, Catherine hopes that the girl will become a friend, but is anxious about her reaction to David. Each chapter title is also a rule, and lots more are interspersed throughout the book. In an effort to keep life on an even keel, Catherine creates rules for him ('It's okay to hug Mom but not the clerk at the video store'). While she loves him, she is also embarrassed by his behavior and feels neglected by their parents. ( Gr 4-7) Twelve-year-old Catherine has conflicting feelings about her younger brother, David, who is autistic. A rewarding story that may well inspire readers to think about others' points of view.

As she creates new cards that expand Jason's ability to express his feelings, their growing friendship enables Catherine to do the same. Through her artwork, the heroine gradually opens up to Jason, a wheelchair-bound peer who can communicate only by pointing to words on cards. In the able hands of the author, mother of an autistic child, Catherine's emotions come across as entirely convincing, especially her alternating devotion to and resentment of David, and her guilt at her impatience with him. Taking solace in art, the girl fills the back of her sketchbook with rules she has established for David, 'so if my someday-he'll-wake-up-a-regular-brother wish doesn't ever come true, at least he'll know how the world works, and I won't have to keep explaining things.' Sorely missing her best friend, who is away for the summer, and realizing that the girl who has just moved in next door is not a kindred spirit, Catherine devises some of her own self-protective rules ('When you want to get out of answering something, distract the questioner with another question'). Her parents place 12-year-old Catherine in charge of her younger autistic brother more often than she would like. The appealing, credible narrator at the heart of Lord's debut novel will draw in readers, as she struggles to find order and balance in her life. And maybe normal is not so important after all. begins to realize 'normal' means different things to different people.

A former teacher, behavioural specialist, and bookseller, she lives with her husband and children in Maine. 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 head off David's embarrassing behaviors.īut the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising, new sort-of friend, 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? ( From the publisher.)Ĭynthia Lord is the mother of two children, one of whom has autism. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life.

Rules by cynthia lord setting