Mockingbird
by Kathryn Erskine
This weekend I read a book called Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine which is written in the voice of Caitlin, a young ten year old girl with Asperger's Syndrome. Caitlin is dealing with the loss of her brother, Devon, who is killed at a school shooting. Devon had been her anchor, the person who helped her figure out the reality of the world around her. Without him, nothing makes sense to Caitlin.
A significant portion of this novel is devoted to Caitlin's search for "closure". Her counselor, Ms. Brook recognizes Caitlin's confusion and suggests looking up the word in the dictionary. Though Caitlin finds the definition for the word "closure", she's not able to understand it emotionally and she's not able to understand her dad's sadness. The dictionary is not able to teach Caitlin enough about this word.
Caitlin's attempts at dealing with her emotions are difficult and confusing. She has a great talent for drawing and in some way this seems to bring her closer to the "closure" she is seeking. At one point, Caitlin is drawing the face of Devon's art teacher at a middle school fundraiser (this is the first time she is ever drawing a human face and she thinks:
"There is something wrong with his smile. I stare into his
eyes. His eyes don't look happy like the photos of happy
eyes Ms. Brook has shown me. Maybe his smile is not big
enough to push his eyes up at the coroners like happy eyes
are supposed to be."
As the book progresses, Caitlin moves closer to understanding the real meaning of closure by connecting herself more to other people. With her counselor's encouragement, Caitlin joins a group project in her class for the first time and begins to socialize with other kids. She also recognizes her dad's smile and begins to understand that he is moving on from his sadness. Finally, she makes friends with a young boy who experienced a similar loss at the school shooting. Their shared experience and opportunity to talk about their loss brings Caitlin closer to a greater understanding of her feelings.
Where's My Wand?
by Eric Poole
Over the course of this past week, I read a funny memoir called Where's My Wand? by Eric Poole. As a young boy, Eric was obsessed with a television series called "Bewitched" and one of the characters named Endora who wore glamorous clothes and had magical powers. It seemed as if Eric wanted to use magic in order to make his and his hard working mother's life easier.
Before Eric reaches adolescence, he is tormented and bullied by his peers as they see him as a "geek" and not as a typical boy. When he reaches adolescence, Eric begins to think about his one friend Billy and wonders if he or Billy is gay. At this time, he considers changing his personality so that he can become more popular in school.
The book Where's My Wand? reminded me of another book that I read in 6th grade called Totally Joe by James Howe. In Totally Joe, Joe, who is in middle school and is gay, gets bullied and tormented for being different. Similarly, Eric struggles with being different and the challenges this brings up during his adolescence.
Throughout his memoir, Eric Poole uses humor to help him cope with difficult life issues. For example, he says,
I had always considered myself a compassionate figure, a benevolent soul in
the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr, Marcus Welby, MD or Big Bird. As some-
one with such magnificent qualities, I naturally abhorred violence of any kind,
particularly that rendered upon small animals or seventh graders.
Eric succeeds in capturing his struggles and his family's craziness through hilarious, touching and sometimes sad moments.
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Where's My Wand?
by Eric Poole
Over the course of this past week, I read a funny memoir called Where's My Wand? by Eric Poole. As a young boy, Eric was obsessed with a television series called "Bewitched" and one of the characters named Endora who wore glamorous clothes and had magical powers. It seemed as if Eric wanted to use magic in order to make his and his hard working mother's life easier.
Before Eric reaches adolescence, he is tormented and bullied by his peers as they see him as a "geek" and not as a typical boy. When he reaches adolescence, Eric begins to think about his one friend Billy and wonders if he or Billy is gay. At this time, he considers changing his personality so that he can become more popular in school.
The book Where's My Wand? reminded me of another book that I read in 6th grade called Totally Joe by James Howe. In Totally Joe, Joe, who is in middle school and is gay, gets bullied and tormented for being different. Similarly, Eric struggles with being different and the challenges this brings up during his adolescence.
Throughout his memoir, Eric Poole uses humor to help him cope with difficult life issues. For example, he says,
I had always considered myself a compassionate figure, a benevolent soul in
the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr, Marcus Welby, MD or Big Bird. As some-
one with such magnificent qualities, I naturally abhorred violence of any kind,
particularly that rendered upon small animals or seventh graders.
Eric succeeds in capturing his struggles and his family's craziness through hilarious, touching and sometimes sad moments.
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Jacob Sutton
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September 30, 2012
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
This past week, I read the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark haddon, which focuses on the main character, who is also the narrator, Christopher Boone, a fifteen year old autistic genius who lives in Swindon, England with his father. Christopher is different than other people. He despises the colors yellow and brown, does not like to communicate with people, hates being touched, cannot tell a lie and does not understand the way other people think. He is a math whiz; for example, he can identify all the prime numbers up to 7,057 and loves puzzles.
Christopher values animals more than people. When his neighbors dog is killed with a pitchfork, he tries to solve this crime as if it were a puzzle and a math problem. This begins a journey for Christopher that takes him places that he could not ever imagine, both physically and mentally.
Since Christopher is not a typical person, it is difficult to measure how much Christopher grows as a character throughout the novel. His thoughts are so different than others. For example, he describes his observations of the universe in this way:
"When the Universe has finished exploding, all the stars will slow down, like a
ball that has been thrown into the air, and they will come to a halt and they will
all begin to fall towards the center of the universe again. And then there will be
nothing to stop us from seeing all the stars in the world because they will be
moving toward us, gradually faster and faster, and we will know that the world is
going to end soon, because when we look into the sky at night, there will be no
darkness, just the blazing light of billions and billions of stars all falling."
He states over and over again that the brain is just like a computer and that humans are no more special than animals. This is why Christopher is so intrigued by the horrible crime against the dog. Christopher's social skills are limited by his autism which makes it easier for him to identify with animals rather than with people.
When events in the story challenge him emotionally, Christopher's reactions are not typical. When he discovers that his mother is alive or when he travels by himself to London, Christopher gets sick and blacks out. This seems to be a way for him to avoid his mind getting overloaded. He pushes himself and in the end, he grows stronger and finds ways to overcome some of the challenges that limit him.
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