Rules

A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed Cynthia Lord’s picture book, Happy Birthday, Hamster. Under her name was a tag that said Newbery Honor winner. I promised to come back and review that book: Rules.

It is the beginning of summer, twelve year old Catherine’s best friend, Melissa, has gone to California to spend the summer with her dad. She is looking forward to meeting the girl who is moving in next door, imagining lots of summer fun with her new neighbor. But her brother, David may be a problem. David is autistic. David’s social skills are not the best, so Catherine has written him some rules. They include: say ‘thank you’ when someone gives you a present (even if you don’t like it), you can yell at a playground but not during dinner and no toys in the fish tank (see cover).

David goes to Occupational Therapy twice a week. Catherine frequently goes along because the clinic is near her favorite shopping district. One day Catherine meets Jason, a boy of 14 or 15, who is also an OT patient. Jason is in a wheel chair and communicates by pointing to hand-written cards in a binder. The cards in the binder are utilitarian. Catherine offers to make word cards to expand Jason’s vocabulary. Catherine gives him back cards that say Gross! Awesome!  Friend. As their friendship grows, so do the cards in Jason’s binder.

The new girl, Krista, finally moves in next door. Catherine goes to great lengths to make sure David does not embarrass her in front of her new friend. How Catherine balances her devotion to her brother, her uneasiness about how others see David and her friendship with Jason with her new friend is the crux  of the rest of the book. I am not sure the 12 year old me would have made the same decisions. It was tough to be 12 in 1960, it is way tougher in the 21st century. Being perfect, looking perfect and having “perfect” friends is so important, or at least the media and a great deal of society makes you think it is. Catherine finds her “real” self in the process.

The Sonoma County Library has several copies and  one copy on CD.

The AR level is 3.9.

Happy Birthday, Hamster

The characters from Hot Rod Hamster return in this new book, Happy Birthday, Hamster to give Hamster a surprise party. Newbery Honor author, Cynthia Lord teams up again with illustrator, Derek Anderson to create a colorful, funny, rhyming adventure.

Hamster greets his friend, Dog, with a question, “Do you know what today is?” “Yes,” Dog says, “it is my shopping day.” Dog and Hamster set off for the bakery. There are plenty of cakes to choose from. Hamster wants the one with the most frosting (a hamster after my own heart) but Dog is there to buy dog biscuits. Then they are off to the Toy Store. Hamster chooses a riding toy but Dog came to get a ball. Dog needs one more thing, a card. So they head off to the party store. Unseen by Hamster, at all the stops the mice and rats that helped build his car in the previous book are gathering a cake, the riding toy and lots of party supplies. With one final stop at the barber shop, Hamster and Dog finish the errands and head home. Hamster is a little down; he thinks his friends have forgotten his birthday. He invites Dog in and is greeting by a huge SURPRISE! All his friends have gathered to celebrate his birthday.

Somehow, I missed the “Newbery Honor author” subtitle on the first book, Hot Rod Hamster. I didn’t miss it on this one. Her 2007 Honor book, Rules, is at the top of my stack of books to read. A review will be forth coming.

The Yulupa Library has one copy. You can still order this book online from the Yulupa Book Fair here until March 19, 2013.

The AR level is 1.4.