It took me months to read the book because the writing of David’s character wasn’t just upsetting, it often left me triggered. While Jason becomes more independent throughout the book, the description and treatment of David remains largely negative. As she grows as a person, the view we as readers are given on Jason changes slightly, but not enough. Jason’s storyline is handled differently and a little better, but the emphasis is still on how Catherine’s friendship with Jason affects her.
The fact that she has an autistic brother is crucial to the plot, but her actual brother is really more of a plot device than anything else. This is a book about a girl who has an autistic brother. Very few, and that’s an important point to raise. There are very few attempts to humanize David. That alone isn’t the problem: growing up, I would have loved to see more families like mine represented, and not just because of me and my disabilities. This is a book written by an author who has an autistic child, but is not autistic herself, and admits that the inspiration for writing the book was her non-autistic daughter.
This is a book for youth who have siblings with disabilities, or maybe friends, cousins, other people in their lives.
And that’s the part of the book that scares me. Trying to connect with the new kids but just never getting it right. I remember being her age, the oldest sibling, trying to fit in at school and not being able to. There was a small of me that wanted to connect with Catherine. As readers, we follow Catherine during her summer vacation, as she gets to know Jason better, misses her best friend who is away for the entire break, and attempts to find a new friend in the girl who just moved next door. While both David’s autism and Jason’s use of a wheelchair are frequently mentioned and remain important to the plot, Jason’s specific disability is never brought up. David routinely has to go to occupational therapy, which is how Catherine knows Jason, who is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair. Rules is narrated by twelve-year-old Catherine, who does not have a disability herself but has a younger autistic brother, David.
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