RULES
By Cynthia Lord
208 pp.
Scholastic Press. $15.99

Reviewed by John Clark

Cynthia Lord is a Maine resident who has been a teacher, bookseller, and behavioral specialist. She is also a parent of a child who has autism. She has combined her talents and experience to create a great first book. Rules is about the relationship between twelve-year-old Catherine and her younger brother David, who has autism. The title refers to the book of dos and don’ts that Catherine has developed over the course of learning to deal with David’s behavior, but they have become more, a lot more. They help Catherine keep her frustration with David’s behavior in perspective as well as remind herself that sometimes she needs rules to stay focused and stop worrying about fitting in.

Summer vacation finds Catherine a bit lost. Her best friend Melissa is in California, leaving Catherine with a summer of minding David, running interference when their father is late to take David to the video store (a big part of his daily ritual), and hoping that the new family moving in next door will have a daughter her age to bring some magic to her vacation.

The new girl, Kristi, brings her own set of problems: separated parents with whom she splits her summer and an interest in Ryan, the boy who lives a couple houses down the street toward the bus stop and who delights in getting David upset. Still, Catherine and Kristi’s friendship develops, subject to the ever-present chaos caused by David’s behavior and Catherine’s “almost planned in advance” ways of dealing with it.

When Catherine accompanies her mother and brother to the local clinic for his weekly therapy, she notices another boy, Jason, who is confined to a wheelchair and communicates by pointing to plain white speech cards with words on them in a large notebook. Catherine’s curiosity and artistic skills are sparked, and she begins sketching Jason. When his mother interrupts her, thinking her son might take offense, Catherine is embarrassed. As she sorts through her feelings, she realizes she is seeing Jason in a different light.

Jason’s anger wasn’t directed at Catherine, but at his mother because she didn’t stop to look at a guitar at a lawn sale. In fact, he uses his word cards to let her know that he likes her drawing. Catherine gives the sketch to him and offers to make him some new word cards with accompanying pictures. The interaction starts a new summer adventure and gives readers an opportunity to join the journey of growth and self-discovery that Catherine is about to begin.

The rest of this delightful book covers the next several weeks. Catherine takes a risk by making some uniquely expressive word cards for Jason, ones that she believes will help him express the emotions she can see stuck behind his eyes. Words like “awesome” and phrases like “stinks a big one” soon come into play in their conversations. As Jason begins to use them, Catherine starts realizing there’s an interesting and appealing boy locked inside this body that can’t cooperate.

As the story concludes and both Kristi and Jason expect her to attend a summer dance at the community center, Catherine has to decide how to be honest with each of them and most important, with herself. I particularly like the way that each person in the story is drawn, no matter how minor a role they play. Catherine’s parents, while overwhelmed and not always there for her, are sympathetic. Her brother David is extremely understandable. The author has taken great care to describe his behavior so it makes sense to anyone reading the story.

This is a good book to read at family time or to get for a young teen struggling with difficult siblings or fitting-in issues.