Week Four: Realistic Fiction – Mockingbird (mok’ing-burd)
Book Summary:
Caitlin
is in 5th grade when her older brother is shot and killed along with
another student and a teacher at his middle school. His father has raised Devon and Caitlin alone after her
mother’s death when she was very young.
Devon was the easy one. He
was normal. He was building a
mission chest, with his father, for his Eagle Scout project. Caitlin is anything but normal, yet she
is what he has left.
Mockingbird, named after the classic To Kill a Mockingbird which was a
favorite film of Devon’s, tells the story of a community torn apart by
violence, and how a young girl with Asperger’s syndrome helps them heal.
APA Reference:
Erskine, K. (2010). Mockingbird. New York, NY: Philomel
Books.
My Impressions:
I
can hear former students with Asperger’s syndrome in Caitlin because the way
she speaks seems perfectly written.
The seemingly random capitalization of words made me make certain words
more important while I read, as she did while she spoke. I feel the phrases such as “Deal With
It” and “Look At The Person,” which are both repeated over and over in Catlin’s
head give a glimpse of how she perceives the world. It was wonderful to read a book about a child with
Asperger’s that really dealt with coming to terms with a situation she did not
have the right feelings to really understand. Equally moving was her father’s reactions to the death of
his son and still trying to raise Caitlin as best he could. When Caitlin finally figures out that
finishing Devon’s Eagle Scout project could bring them “Closure,” it is a turning
point for her in her understanding of herself and others around her. This was a moving story that centered
on deaths from a school shooting, something all too familiar, but it becomes
more because of the intimacy we are allowed with Caitlin’s thoughts.
Professional Review:
From
inside Caitlin's head, readers see the very personal aftermath of a middle
school shooting that took the life of the older brother she adored. Caitlin is
a bright fifth grader and a gifted artist. She also has Asperger's syndrome,
and her brother, Devon, was the one who helped her interpret the world. Now she
has only her father, a widower who is grieving anew and whose ability to relate
to his daughter is limited. A compassionate school counselor works with her,
trying to teach her the social skills that are so difficult for her. Through
her own efforts and her therapy sessions, she begins to come to terms with her
loss and makes her first, tentative steps toward friendship. Caitlin's thought
processes, including her own brand of logic, are made remarkably clear. The
longer readers spend in the child's world, the more understandable her entirely
literal and dispassionate interpretations are. Marred slightly by the portrayal
of Devon as a perfect being, this is nonetheless a valuable book. After getting
to know Caitlin, young people's tendencies to label those around them as either
"normal" or "weird" will seem as simplistic and inadequate
a system as it truly is.
Brautigam, F. (2010, April). Mockingbird [Review
of the book Mockingbird by K.
Erskine]. School Library Journal, 56(4), 154-156.
Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
This
book could be used in a book talk or display of books about grief. Especially with the unfortunate number
of shootings that take place in the United States, this is a topic many
children may need to read about to make sense of such tragic events.
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