Rules (Scholastic Gold)

Rules, a realistic fiction novel written by Cynthia Lord describes a young teen living with her autistic brother and the struggles she faces while trying to have an adventurous summer with a new friend and having to deal with the stigma attached to her brother. The main character, Catherine, matures throughout the book with how she deals with her brother, David, and how she begins to accept his disabilities. At first, she is very embarrassed by David and his actions in public, but through meeting a special friend, Jason, at occupational therapy (OT), she realizes how instead of getting annoyed with David’s behaviors, she should learn to accept them and view things more positively. From the beginning of the book it is clear how insecure Catherine feels about having a brother with autism. She takes care of him a lot, but is incredibly strict with him by trying to make set rules for everything he does. David does learn these rules, but as the book continues, it seems that the rules are more “helpful” for Catherine’s feelings then for David himself. We first see Catherine’s self consciousness appear when she has a new next door neighbor, a girl her age named Kristi. All Catherine wants is a friend for the summer since her best friend is not home. She hopes she can hide David from Kristi, fearing that he would scare her off and she would not want to be Catherine’s friend. However, when Kristi does meet David, she is not immediately scared off. An ongoing issue throughout the book is how frustrated Catherine gets that she was to babysit and help David more than (she feels) her parents do. Instead of viewing her time with David as special sibling bonding time, she views it as a burden, continuously thinking about what she could be doing if she did not have to be with her brother. The only time we see Catherine genuinely excited about being with David is when she goes with her mom to take David to OT. Catherine made a new friend there, Jason, who is a boy about her age in a wheelchair and is nonverbal. They communicate through Jason’s communications book, where Catherine takes it upon herself to draw and create new words to fill up Jason’s book. She surprises him each week with a set of new words to learn so they have a better way of talking and getting to know each other. Immediately, they form a close connection, each making the other jump out of their comfort zone in some way or another. Instead of viewing and treating Jason the way she treats David, Catherine truly treats him like her friend. When Jason said he wants to run, Catherine has the idea to take him outside in the parking lot, and run while pushing him, so he could get the rush and feeling of freedom. Jason invites Catherine to his birthday party, where she decides to spend all her savings to buy him a used guitar so he could practice making music. At his party, Jason decides to ask Catherine to the community dance that night, and when she hesitates and makes excuses, not only does he call her out but also he asks why she is embarrassed of him. This is the moment when Catherine finally puts into perspective how she treats Jason and David, and how she should. She realizes that just like her, they are normal people who deserve getting treated fairly. After apologizing and asking Jason to the dance, she explains to him that she realized it was never about being embarrassed of him, it was her own insecurity of how people would view her.

Lord does a fantastic job with introducing the reader into the mind of two boys with disabilities, but also, the perspectives of family members and friends who are very relevant in these kids’ lives. Rules was Cynthia Lord’s first novel, and has won two awards: the 2007 Newberry Honor Book award and the Schneider Family Book Award. She then went on to write three more young adult books. I feel as if this book if very eye opening but also heart warming to any reader. Even though it is meant for ages 8-12, I still found myself, a 20-year-old college student, laughing, crying, and truly connecting to all the characters in this novel. I think everyone should read this to get incite into families with children that have special needs, but also, to, like Catherine, discover how to treat people with disabilities. Without being too simple or too intense of a story, Lord creates characters and a plotline that every age can enjoy and understand.

This book is utter dreck. It reads like Saul Alinsky's Rules For Radicals put to a pseudo-plot revolving around a modern "social issue." Some of the "rules" from this book are downright offensive to me, and should be offensive to anyone who values concepts such as honesty and integrity.

"If you want to get away with something, don't announce it first."

"If you don't want to do something, say, 'Hmm. I'll think about it,' and maybe the asker will forget about it."

"If you want to get out of answering something, pretend you didn't hear."

"Leaving something out isn't the same as lying."

"When you want to get out of answering something, distract the questioner with another question."

"If you want to change the subject, confuse the other person by going off in a wild chatty direction."

Mindless.

I miss the days when kids were assigned authors like CS Lewis, Mark Twain, Isaac Asimov, or JRR Tolkien in fifth grade.

Hmmm...., what can I write about this book. Great character's, intelligent details, honest theme, STEREOTYPICAL!!!!! This book is an attempt at revealing the beauty of disabled children, yet it comes off as a book about a girl who is embarrassed about her autistic brother. That's understandable, but when you write a story on such a delicate and easily misinterpreted theme, you have to be careful. This story greatly reminds me of "Julep O'Toole, Middle Child". It seems that the only way authors can get across some beautiful theme, is by making their stereotype characters realize how they act and feel is wrong. I couldn't relate to the character, or picture what was going on. I felt like I was reading a letter from some distant relative I had never heard of. This story was written in a hurry, stereotypically, and the author should have added some more descriptions. A must NOT read.

Of all of the rules 12 year old Catherine makes for her little brother, David, "sometimes you've gotta work with what you've got" is quite fitting when it comes to describing what it is like to have someone in your life born with a disability. Cynthia Lord enables the reader of her book, Rules, to come to understand what it is like to grow up with someone with autism. The character David shows many of the classic symptoms of autism including sensory sensitivity, functional echolalia, obsession with certain interests, and lack of social interaction skills. In the story, one of the other key characters is a 15 year old boy named Jason Morehouse. Jason has a physical disability which restricts him to a wheel chair and an apparent voice disability which limits his communication to pointing at words in a communication book. While I am not certain what specific category this low-incidence disability might fall under, it is captured in the book in as respectful and accurate a manor as David's autism. When Catherine's family brings David to occupational therapy she befriends Jason through her artistic talent when she offers to make and illustrate more words for his communication book. The main conflict in the story arises when Kristi, a girl Catherine desperately wants to be friends with, urges Catherine to invite Jason to a community dance. Catherine is scared to tell Kristi about Jason's disability because of what others might think of her. This specific conflict concerning Jason mirrors the overall conflict concerning her brother David. Catherine dislikes the way the world sees her brother and Jason but does not want to be seen as having a problem either. "The rest of the world isn't like the clinic. Other places, people stare. Or they hurry away, and I know what they're thinking. `Oh, isn't that too bad.' or "What's wrong with that kid?' ... I get so sick of it" (Lord, 179). Catherine's feelings and fears are perfectly valid. The story is very accurate when it comes to the negative reactions Catherine describes, but it also does a good job portraying the positive reactions as well. At one point Catherine takes Jason in his wheel chair out to the parking lot to "run". Pushing him as fast as she can, in that moment she doesn't care what anybody thinks of her or how she looks. When they stop and look around, many people are smiling and even cheering them on. When Catherine's brother comes with her to Jason's birthday party, Jason's family understands and accepts David warmly. In the positive and negative reactions of society described here, and in the way the individuals with disabilities are represented, Rules is accurate and fair. Not only will I use this book to give my students a compassionate perspective of what life is like for their classmates with disabilities, but also how life is for peers related to disabled persons.

I absolutely love this book and believe EVERYONE should read it. I am a fifth grade teacher and read this book to my students at the beginning of each year. It teaches the reader that even when a person has disabilities ( autism, physical disability), they are still human and have needs to communicate with other people. We often see a person with disability and only see their disability, but this book brings to light life from the eyes of a girl who has a younger brother with autism and a new friend with severe physical disabilities (including the inability to speak). Her RULES of life with an autistic brother and her aid in helping her new friend communicate more like a child without disabilities. Again, every person will become a better inhabitant of this world by reading and heeding the messages in this book.

Like most other twelve-year-old girls, Catherine just wants to fit in. But that's hard with a younger brother who screams at loud noises, takes off his pants in public, and speaks in "borrowed words" from books and movies. Catherine loves her brother, but she secretly wishes she could reach inside his head and "fix" the autistic parts of his brain. Then she wouldn't have a hard time making friends with the ultra-cool girl next door, Kristi. And maybe she wouldn't have to worry about introducing Kristi to her friend, Jason, who has to move with a wheelchair and speak with the help of a conversation book. Will she work up the courage to accept Jason and her brother the way they are?

Rules is a charming novel about a young woman coping with her brother's disability. Unfortunately, Lord doesn't seem very attuned to the way twelve-year-olds think and act. Some of the material was dated by the time the book was published--even though the book was published in 2006, Catherine listens to Avril Lavigne and her little brother uses a cassette tape player. The character, Kristi, is also confused. The reader is left to wonder whether Kristi is sympathetic, judgmental, or just plain clueless. Overall, Rules is a good read, but perhaps not up to normal Newbery honoree standards.

This book wasn't terrible but far away from good. It was reptive and quite frankly boring. I've heard lot's of people loved it but I just couldn't get into it. This book did make you think a little bit,but I think this book either strikes you the wronge way or the right way. I do not reccomend this book.

The book Rules by Cynthia Lord is very descriptive. It opened my eyes to the needs of special needs kids, especially about kids who have autism or can't walk or talk. Catherine, the main character, was not happy about her autistic brother in the beginning. She acted like a tween-ager, often embarrassed by her brother's different behavior. She set up a series of rules to help him act normal. My favorite character was Jason. Jason was also a tween-ager. He could not walk or talk. When Catherine first met him at OT, he was really shy and overprotected. Jason had a speech book fill with words like 'thank you' 'please', all very nice and polite words. Then Catherine made him new speech cards and she included much richer words. She included sayings like 'stinks a big one', 'guilty', 'friend', 'complicated'. When she gave him the card for 'together', Jason got upset that she had drawn a picture of them together, but without a wheelchair. Catherine felt guilty as if she couldn't accept his disability or her brother's Autism for that matter. She redrew the card with a wheelchair and in the process, she felt more accepting. In the end, she asked him to go to the dance with her and proudly introduced him to her new neighbor. My favorite rule was pantless brothers are not my problem. This book is helpful to open your eyes to people with struggles in general.

I hate!!!!!

This book is very boring. I had to read this book in class and I thiugh tit sounded kind of like wonder. But its a typical boring 12 y/o girl who is annoyed about the way her brother id and hates how her family revolves around him. It was supposed to be a really meaningful book but it took her an entire 14 chapters to finally except her brother. If your a person who likes action (like me) then this is not the book for you, but if you want something to read to easily get a report done then this book is very simple.