Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

National Book Award Winner

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  Some playground fighting and name-calling; Caitlin becomes angry and hits a boy.  Caitlin’s brother Devon has been killed in a school shooting.  This occurs before the story begins, so it is mentioned only from Caitlin’s point of view (who was not present at the shooting), thus distancing the reader from the actual violence and trauma.

Adult Themes:  Caitlin’s mother has died of cancer and now her brother has been killed, leaving her alone with her father who does not know how to cope emotionally or relate to Caitlin’s perception of the tragedy.

Synopsis

Told from the viewpoint of a 10-year-old girl with Asperger’s syndrome (a form of autism), the reader steps inside Caitlin’s world as she tries to cope with the death of her beloved older brother, Devon, who was killed in a tragic middle school shooting.  Devon was the glue that held their tiny family together and the anchor in Caitlin’s life who helped her make sense of the chaotic world around her.  It was Devon who showed Caitlin how to behave around others, who praised her exceptional artwork, and who nicknamed her “Scout” (allusions to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird).  Now with him gone, Caitlin must come to grips with the fact that he will never come back.  She must also try to get her widower father to open up to her so they can begin the healing process together.  When she discovers her brother’s unfinished Eagle Scout project under a sheet in his room, she decides that completing it with her father might help them “make something good and strong and beautiful come out of this.” Through her efforts, and with the help of a sympathetic school counselor and another little boy whose mother was also a shooting victim, Caitlin learns the meaning of finesse, closure, and empathy as she gingerly steps out of her inner world and into the real one in which she belongs.

One of the interesting aspects about this book is that, as seen through Caitlin’s eyes, the reader gets a glimpse into the mind of an Asperger’s sufferer.  Caitlin is intellectually superior to her peers, yet socially and emotionally much younger than her ten years.  She understands things differently; expressions and phrases are taken literally (i.e. “put yourself in her shoes” makes no sense to her), and she has a hard time making friends or reading emotions.  When her father tells her to say something nice to a man she’s just met, Caitlin says, “I don’t think you’re disgusting just because you have hair sticking out of your ear.”  There are also touching moments, such as when Caitlin first begins to understand what empathy means (learning vocabulary words is a pasttime) and remarks, “Even though I didn’t think I’d like empathy it kind of creeps up on you and makes you feel all warm and glowy inside.  I don’t think I want to go back to life without empathy.”  A good book to teach kids how to understand one another, particulary those with labels or disabilities.