Chapter Book #6--Rules

Title:  Rules

Author:  Cynthia Lord

Illustrator:  N/A

Grade Level Equivalent:  4.5

Lexile Measure:  780L

Genre:  Children's Literature

Subgenre:  Realistic Fiction

Theme:  Love and acceptance of others has to come from within yourself, not others.

Primary and Secondary Characters:  Catherine, David, Jason, Kristi, Ryan, Catherine & David's mother and father

Awards:  Newbery Honor Medal (2007)

Schneider Family Book Award (2007)
Mitten Award (Michigan Library Association)
Great Lakes Great Books Award (Michigan)
Maine Student Book Award
Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award (Vermont)
Kentucky Bluegrass Award
Great Stone Face Award (New Hampshire)
Buckeye Children's Book Award (Ohio)

Date of Publication:  2006
Publisher:  Scholastic, Inc.
ISBN:  0439443822

Rules tells the story of twelve-year-old Catherine who is struggling to deal with her brother, David’s, autism.  Their mother is a tax preparation agent who works from home and their father is a pharmacist who works all the time.  Catherine has created rules for David, things like “Say ‘thank you’ when someone gives you a present (even if you don’t like it)”, “No toys in the fish tank”, and “Sometimes people laugh when they like you.  But sometimes they laugh to hurt you”.  She thinks these rules she has created are to help David—and some of them do—but really it’s to try to keep David from doing things that might embarrass her.  When a new girl, Kristi, moves in across the street, Catherine’s insecurities about her brother and his disability really take off.  She becomes almost hyperaware of the smallest of David’s quirks, such as his tendency to open and close every door in every house he goes in.  The fact that her parents allow David to engage in small behaviors like this angers Catherine to no end.  Then she meets a boy, Jason, a paraplegic, at David’s occupational therapy appointment.  Jason cannot talk but uses a communication book to communicate with others.  Catherine strikes up a friendship with him and creates new cards with new words to put in Jason’s book.  But even with her new friend, she cannot shed the embarrassment she feels towards the disabled people in her life.  When she tells Kristi about Jason, she conveniently leaves is disability out of the story.  When Kristi suggests that Catherine invite Jason to the upcoming dance, she makes excuse after excuse.  When Jason hears about the dance he asks Catherine and when she says no, Jason fears that Catherine is embarrassed by him and his disability.  It takes this deep, hurtful feeling to snap Catherine out of her embarrassment and learn, slowly but surely, that she is the one with the problem and she needs to be more accepting and understanding of the people she truly cares about and worry less about what others may think.

I think this book is a must-have for a classroom.  It is ideal for older students who have loved ones with disabilities.  The struggle for Catherine to come to terms with her brother’s autism and her friend’s disability is something that, I’m sure, almost every student in the same situation can relate to.  It can help students who face the same problem learn to see that the embarrassment or lack of acceptance they feel towards the person in their life who is faced with autism or any other disability is their struggle and one that they will have to come to terms with and does not reflect the person with the disability.  I just think it is a wonderful story that can resonate on so many levels with young students who face a similar situation.