Rules

Rules is another book having to do with an autistic brother, a twelve-year old girl named Catherine, and her family and neighbors. Now, for Catherine, all she really wants is her life to be normal. But pretty much everyone can tell- that's hard when your brother is autistic. Catherine really wants to be normal. Okay. That's fine. Yet everyone's version of 'normal' is different. Could it be that Catherine already has her 'normal'? 'What is your definition of normal?'

David has a set of rules that he is supposed to keep to- from "a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public". Because for a child with autism, things that seem like common sense are confusing, and someone has to go through everything to make them seem normal. For David, it's Catherine. She is the one who teaches him his manners, life tips on how to not get in trouble, how to not embarrass her in front of her friends, and how to keep from getting weird looks from people. David doesn't seem to notice, but Catherine does. And she doesn't feel very good about her autistic brother when they do crinkle their brows together in that 'What's wrong with him?' kind of look. Especially when her friends give it. So when a girl named Kristi moves in to be the potential next-door neighbour she's always wished for, Catherine really finds herself hoping to impress her and keep her brother's autism as barely noticeable as possible. This story is about how Catherine feels about having an autistic brother and how she deals with his public displays and how he acts in public. Frankly, Catherine wishes everyday, every wish that David would be clear of his autism- that there would be a pill that would make him wake up with no autism, and no problems.  She wishes for someday when she would be able to yell at him, and he would yell back, not break down into tears. She longs for a day when David will be the normal younger brother. And she wished for a day when she can actually trust her mother to be a mother and take care of David.

Cynthia Lord is a really great writer, and I think that it made it all the more funny how she wrote David's autism, and how Catherine deals with it. Cynthia is really good at writing, I think, and I have to say that it was a very well-written book. The only thing about it is that it isn't very realistic. If someone has an autistic brother, I don't think that they would have been as understanding as Catherine. I think they would have thought things a hundred times worse than just 'I wish my brother would wake up with no autism one day.' I don't think that Catherine would feel so little remorse towards everything....

***I give this book a 8.5 out of 10. A little far from the truth sometimes, and what would have really happened....****