Rules

Lindsey handed me Rules, by Cynthia Lord last week and told me I "had to read it." So while I waited to shuttle my kids to one event or another, I did.

Cathrine just wants a normal life. But that seems like an impossible dream when her entire existence revolves around her autistic brother and his disability. Catherine writes a book of rules for him so he will remember how he's supposed to act. One of David's rules is to keep his pants on, another is no toys in the fish tank. Convincing him to keep his pants on and his toys out of the fish tank are hard enough, but what's a girl to do when everyone thinks she's weird by association and her parents hardly notice she exists? As Catherine struggles to find her own identity and cope with her brother's embarrassing behavior, she discovers that she can't really be herself until she opens her heart to the people that matter in her life, regardless of whether she is accepted by her new next-door-neighbor who is both beautiful and popular.

I love this book. It's a sweet, funny, sad, and an incredibly touching character-driven story. I really liked the authentic narrative voice. I've been studying voice a lot lately to try to figure out how various authors create it and use it to tell their various stories. In some of my writing, the narrative voice is strong, in other pieces, not so much. So the challenge is to combine a strong narrative voice with an amazing story. Sure, no problem. Hahaha.

I'm like the Little Engine chanting, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.... The Little Engine's story ends with success, but it doesn't really say how long he was stuck on the hill. So I think I'm stuck in 'I think I can' mode until I come up with my own magic formula to combine voice and story to write a book that will give me the satisfactory ending of 'I knew I could.'