| Rules | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Cynthia Lord |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Scholastic, Inc. |
| Publication date | 2006 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) also published in large type |
| Pages | 200 pgs. |
| ISBN | 9780439443821 |
| OCLC Number | 61109244 |
| LC Classification | PZ7.L87734 Rul 2006 |
Rules is the debut novel by author Cynthia Lord. Released by Scholastic, Inc. in 2006, it was a Newbery Honor book in 2007.[1] It is also a Sunshine State Young Readers book for 2008–2009 and won the Schneider Family Book Award.
Contents |
Catherine is a 12-year-old girl, her eight-year-old brother, David, has autism and Catherine explains how this makes her life complicated and causes her to wish that her life was a bit more "normal". She is compiling a list of rules for David so that he can understand how the world works.
While Catherine and her mother take David to occupational therapy (OT), she sketches a picture of a 14 or 15 year old boy named Jason who cannot speak and uses a wheelchair. He uses a book to talk. Jason seems to be quite scared of Catherine, and has a crush on her as well. Her friend Kristi asks if Jason would want to join Catherine at the community center dance (where Kristi volunteers). The only thing was, she never mentioned Jason's disabilities since she did not know how Kristi and her friend Ryan would react. By the end of the book she begins to ask herself, What is Normal? During the book, Catherine learns to accept herself, her family, and Jason.She learns not to be scared to be afraid of what others think of her. All in all, she learns to deal with her brother and life.
Lord has two children, one of whom has autism, and she has stated that RULES explores that family dynamic. The character David is based loosely on her son, including several incidents in the book. Moreover, the character of James is based on her husband experiences growing up and the character of Jason was inspired by an experience she had watching a child in a wheelchair communicating with his mother. The first line she wrote of RULES was “At our house, we have a rule,”.
Her daughter asked her one day, " Mom, how come I never see families like mine in books and on TV?" Cynthia didn't know how to answer her daughter. She then set out to look for children's books that included characters with severe special needs. She found some, but most of them seemed really sad. Cynthia Lord said, "Sadness is part of living with someone with a severe disability, but it's only one part. It can also be funny, inspiring, heartwarming, disappointing, frustrating-everything it is to love anyone and to live with any family." y