"Rules" Rules as a Rad Read
Rules
Author: Cynthia Lord
Publisher/Date: Scholastic Paperbacks/Reprint edition, September 1, 2008
No. of Pages: 224
Reading level: Ages 9-12
The book I am reading this summer is Rules by Cynthia Lord. The book is about a 12-year-old girl named Catherine and her 8-year-old brother David, who has autism.
David likes to go to the video store, walk down the rows, and read the back of the movie cases. He then shouts out the movies’ ratings really loud.
“RATED PG-13!” he’ll yell.
He is given specific rules he has to follow. One of them is about cellar doors. When a cellar door is open, he is supposed to shut it. When David goes to the home of one of Catherine’s friends, he runs all over the place looking for a cellar door. However, the friend’s house is a mobile home, so there is no cellar door.
Catherine feels humiliated having him around when she goes places. But she likes to make rules and David loves to follow them, so she tries to come up with rules for David to follow so she does not get embarrassed.
Kristi, who is also 12, moves next door to Catherine and David. When the siblings are on the porch waiting for their dad, David starts crying because their father is late. Kristi comes over to ask Catherine if her brother is OK.
Catherine is mad at David for embarrassing her in front of someone she was trying to impress and gain as a friend. But David doesn’t realize what Catherine is feeling.
One day on the way to occupational therapy for David, Catherine meets a kid named Jason who can’t walk or talk. The only way he can communicate is through a special book of words. After two weeks of going to OT with David, Catherine becomes friends with Jason and makes him new words to use for his book.
Through this experience, Catherine learns that David can’t help being different and that David’s problem is nothing compared to Jason’s. By the end of the book, you can see Catherine’s feelings for David change from embarrassed to understanding.
Read the book to find out if Catherine becomes friends with Kristi and if her friendship with Jason will last. I really like this book and highly recommend it for a great read.
PHOTO: Book Cover Courtesy Scholastic Paperbacks
NOTE: What did you read that you loved this summer? Use the blue comment link below to let us know!
