Rules
Lord, C. (2006). Rules. New York, NY: Scholastic.
Rules, rules, rules everyone and everything has rules to follow. In this realistic
fiction book the protagonist Catherine
is developing a list of rules for her little brother. These are not just any rules; they are rules
to help him fit in with society. Catherine’s
little brother has autism and she thinks he needs this list of rules to help
him be more normal or less embarrassing. Catherine develops several new friendships
throughout the summer which leads to a person-against-self
conflict; she has to overcome her embarrassment in order to defend her
friendship with a young man in a wheelchair.
Throughout the book, Cynthia Lord did a great job developing the
character of Catherine, giving her a great personality. The author was able to show this personality
through the friendship she developed with Jason a young man in a wheelchair. In order for Catherine to communicate with
him she had to develop word cards for his communication book. I found the words and phrases she chose very
indicative of her personality.
The book was organized
into chapters. Each chapter’s title was
one of the rules Catherine had developed for her little brother. I thought the author was very clever to
entitle each chapter with a rule.
I would use this book with grades 3-8 to teach acceptance and
diversity. Visit the following website
for a booktalk on the book Rules.
Visit the following website for a reading guide to accompany the book;
it looks really great including writing prompts and graphic organizers to use
while reading the book.
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