"Looking Closer": Rules by Cynthia Lord

In Cynthia Lord's Rules, twelve-year-old Catherine hopes that when her autistic brother David learns all her rules for being a normal person, her job as supervisory sister will be over. Trouble is, David can read and recite the rules but just can't seem to follow them. For instance, with exasperating regularity, David interrupts whatever she's doing to announce "No toys in the fish tank," which means that he has just put a toy in the fish tank for her to retrieve.

Now that summer has begun, Catherine misses her vacationing best friend and hopes the new girl next door will take her place. But what will Kristi do when she finds out about David? Her mom says to deal with what is and not get her hopes up, but Catherine quietly thinks, "Where else can hopes go but up?"

Catherine's summer hopes are further complicated by her growing friendship with Jason, a mute paraplegic whom she meets during her brother's occupational therapy visits. Jason communicates by pointing to word cards, and Catherine starts making new cards decorated with her drawings, with choices such as "AWESOME!" "WHATEVER," and "STINKS A BIG ONE!" While Catherine really likes being with Jason, she is afraid that acknowledging their friendship will only drive Kristi farther away.

When Jason and Kristi both invite her to a community dance, Catherine has to decide if she is strong enough to risk her tentative friendship with Kristi to preserve her special relationship with Jason. Should she give up her hopes for each of them, or should she take a chance to become closer to both?

The graphic artist in Catherine has observed that "looking closer can make something beautiful," and Catherine finds the courage to take that closer look. When Jason gestures BREAK. DANCE. RULE, Catherine finally breaks her "no dance" rule and takes to the floor.

Rules is an honest, funny novel which presents Catherine as a real person, at times jealous, at times generous, at times truly torn by the choices her family situation forces her to make. Her brother and her friend Jason are just as real and just as torn by their own limitations, but Lord's close look at their lives does "make something beautiful."