Mockingbird

Mockingbird By: Kathryn Erskine

            

This is the story of Caitlin, a girl who has Asperger’s and who is also trying to understand the loss of her brother Devon, who was shot in a school shooting.  This story follows Caitlin as she sorts out her feelings of loss, making friends, and helping her dad. Caitlin likes to know what words mean and she finds the word closure and sets off to figure out how she can find it for her and her dad. She does not like to hear him cry and misses her brother terribly. So Caitlin is able to come up with a project that can help her and her dad find the closure that they need to move on.  Caitlin also has to build friendships, which is very hard for her. She is able to do this easily with her friend Michael who is in first grade but has a hard time with the fifth graders in her class. But with work and effort Caitlin is able to make some friends.

This book was so wonderfully written and had such a strong message. It really made you understand what a person with Asperger’s really might feel. And being written from the child’s perspective made it even better for me because when you work with children who are special you sometimes do not understand how to relate to them, and this gives a little view of what might be going on in their world.  I recommend this book to anyone, I will admit it did make me cry, but it was a good cry.  I was loaned this book by a friend. 

ISBN: 978-0-545-35808-8