How to Draw a Mockingbird for Kids
See a Problem?
Thanks for telling us about the problem.
Friend Reviews
Community Reviews
I came away from this book very satisfied. As a female with Asperger's I felt that Caitlin was portrayed realistically. There can be wide differences in how males and females present and I think the author managed to bring those out in Caitlin, though the intense plot does put Caitlin in a situation above and beyond normal everyday life.
A small town
Reason for Reading: I have Asperger's and when I saw a book that featured a female protagonist with Asperger's I was elated and HAD to read the book.I came away from this book very satisfied. As a female with Asperger's I felt that Caitlin was portrayed realistically. There can be wide differences in how males and females present and I think the author managed to bring those out in Caitlin, though the intense plot does put Caitlin in a situation above and beyond normal everyday life.
A small town has been devastated. The local junior high was hit by two gun wielding students who managed to kill one teacher and two students before the police shot one perpetrator and apprehended the other. One of the students who was shot is Caitlin's older brother, Devon. Their mother had died many years ago when Caitlin was a baby and Devon had really become her rock. He was a great big brother. He treated her well and knew how to deal with her as a person with Asperger's almost naturally. He'd tell her not to do stuff 'cause it wasn't cool or that people didn't like it when she did this or that and why and his advice helped her. Now Caitlin's world revolves around seeing a councilor daily at school, coping with her father's sudden crying sessions and missing Devon in her own way. People want her to be more emotional and show more empathy (traits those with Asperger's do not always appear to show) and Caitlin finally finds the word "CLOsure" and knows that is what both she and her father need.
The plot itself is well done. A small community coping with this horrible violence that has entered its once thought serene boundaries. The author shows the effect not only on the family of those murdered and the staff and students at the school, but staff at other schools, neighbours, and a boy who was the cousin of one of the killers. There is fear, disbelief, and togetherness but no anger as they bond to help the community as one, heal. Very-well done.
As to the Asperger's, from the author's note she does not outright say but it seems clear that either she or a loved one has an 'aspie' child and she is writing from experience. Caitlin is well presented as a female with Asperger's. The typical picture the public has of someone with AS is a science, math, computer geek and this is not wrong. These are often very strong interests in males (which doesn't mean some females will too) but typically females show their 'geekiness' in words and books. They are writers, bookworms, grammar police, etc. Caitlin here is an excellent student with great writing skills and a fascination with the dictionary, who keeps lists of words with the accentuated part in caps. Typical female AS behaviour. Caitlin has some meltdowns, fortunately the author doesn't over do them, as has been done in other books I've read. Girls are less likely to have seriously noticeable meltdowns and hyperactivity making the typical age of diagnoses around 16 rather 8 as in boys. Caitlin's two least favourite subjects at school are recess and PE. This really endeared her to me as those were my most hated subjects as well. There is this anxiety feeling you get in the pit of your stomach as an aspie and Caitlin associates this with recess so whenever she gets this feeling she will say she is feeling recessy or has the recess feeling. This beautifully describes an everyday symptom of Asperger's.
The main aspect the author emphasizes here though is the AS person's lack of ability to show emotion or empathy. I think Erskine does manage to show that while we do not show emotion it does not mean we do not feel emotion. Two very different points to keep in mind. Empathy is something that Caitlin herself struggles with and tries to understand and the whole book is a process for her in finding out how to show she has this to others and to understand herself, that she does. While many Asperger's people may lack emotion or empathy, I think the majority of us agree that we lack the ability to SHOW it, rather than that we do not feel the emotions or know how to feel them. I would also like to add my own bit of advice: Never *force* an Asperger's person to look you in the eye, it is akin to torture.
Anyway, I felt a lot of sympatico with Caitlin and the author in her ability to show a positive female character with Asperger's. My only negative is that *I* personally do not agree with the the medical methods being used to treat Caitlin.
...more
Ugh, I did not have a good time with this book at all. I read it because it's about a girl with Aspergers (we go undiagnosed a lot due to stigmas promoting that boys are more likely to have it. They aren't. Girls are more likely to go undiagnosed due to being able to blend in and imitate their peers better.)
ASD is a broad spectrum, but this didn't feel like a very accurate portrayal. The protagonist possibly had other learning disabilities? Because her thought process wasn't typically ASD at all. Autism runs in my family so I would know and no one I know is even remotely similar to Caitlin at all. But like I said: spectrum. This book is written from how a neurotypical views ASD, not from what it is actually like to have ASD.
Caitlin also lacked huge ASD pointers, like having an obsessive interest and she had no need for routines and no emphasis on anxiety. Also the biggest insult is saying that people with ASD are not emphatic. This is so untrue. Oftentimes it's hard for us to show empathy or it's shown in different ways, but the whole book was about Caitlin learning to care about people and it's just...it's a stigma and it needs to stop. The felt like an NT going "omg it must be so hard/bad to be ASD" and it was very ableist.
...more
For a girl with Asperger's who has lost her brother in a school shooting, safety is a luxury she can't reach while people keep staring at her and while her father is in deepest grief. Finding "Closure" is her mission, and as her world is literal and doesn't contain the complexity of different underlying meanings, she goes by her beloved dictionary's definition of closure to start with. In a process that requires incredible bravery, she manages to deve
"Books are not like people. Books are safe."For a girl with Asperger's who has lost her brother in a school shooting, safety is a luxury she can't reach while people keep staring at her and while her father is in deepest grief. Finding "Closure" is her mission, and as her world is literal and doesn't contain the complexity of different underlying meanings, she goes by her beloved dictionary's definition of closure to start with. In a process that requires incredible bravery, she manages to develop a method for herself to reach other people - working on discovering empathy in a practical rather than linguistic sense - and she makes connections in life through literary references.
To Kill A Mockingbird, the book title she didn't understand as it was too allusive, becomes a symbol for her wish to get back to living after The Day Their Lives Fell Apart.
Don't kill any innocent people - a simpe message, brutally ignored. Don't discriminate against people who are different - another message, equally important, and equally often ignored. If politicians stand up and talk about school shooters as "disturbed", and young kids with Aspergers get to hear that their behaviour is "disturbed" as well, that is brutally "disturbing" to their peace of mind, as understanding the world literally part of their reality.
Show empathy, even if it is hard work, and you will eventually learn not to feel like life is as stressful as recess in school for a child on the autistic spectrum.
Absolutely wonderful story with a strong message for all of us: we all have difficulties, and we all have talents. Let's work on being able to read the Facial Expressions Charts properly so we react with empathy in our interactions. Not only Caitlin struggles with that, and not all of us are as honestly trying as she is!
...more
Caitlin doesn't quite understand. Her older brother Devon is dead, killed tragically in a school shooting. She understands that, of course, but she doesn't like what his death has brought with it. As a kid with Asperger's, Caitlin has a difficult enough time figuring out the world around her as it is. Now she has glommed onto a word that seems to offer her a way out her current unhappiness: Closure. If she can find closure for Devon's death, maybe that will help her, help her dad, help everyone who's hurting. The only question is, what can a girl like Caitlin do to help herself and everyone else as well?
Here are some of the criticisms of Mockingbird that I personally do not agree with. 1: That children will not pick this book up. Certainly they won't pick up the hardcover (the paperback sports a much nicer, if unfortunately trendy, image) due to the fact that it's just a blue sky and not much else. But if they begin to read, I can see them being sufficiently intrigued to continue. 2: That this is not an authentic view of Asperger's. I don't agree, partially because you do have to take each child on a case by case basis.
Here are some of the criticisms of Mockingbird that I personally DO agree with: First off, there is the fact that the book is attempting too much at one time. This is true. Mockingbird wants to be three different kinds of books all at once. It would prefer to be a book about a school shooting and how a community deals with the aftermath. This is the very first thing Erskine mentions in the Author's Note, so it appears to be the most important to her. The second thing it would like to be is a book about Asperger's. Done. Third, it would ALSO like to be a book about a dead family member. That's three different storylines. Three that in and of themselves would be more than enough for any middle grade novel. And I think that two of them together would have worked just fine, but by adding all three together Erskine overplays her hand. She relies on Caitlin solving not just her own personal problems, but the problems of an entire community. This rings false for the reader, and the novel's conclusion ends up feeling rushed and pat rather than true and heartfelt.
Which brings us to my second problem. When it comes to the conclusion of any novel, the reader needs to believe in it. If everything appears too pat, you lose something along the way. In the case of Caitlin, the closure is too clean. Right off the bat you have the question of why Caitlin is so obsessed with the nature of closure, not just for herself but for everyone. Compare this book for a moment to Alan Silberberg's, Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze. Like Caitlin, the hero of that book, Milo, is searching for a kind of closure to his mother's death. He is singularly self-obsessed, much like Caitlin, but his pain is his own, with some understanding that his dad and sister must feel somewhat similar. When Milo finds a solution to his problem (finding and seeking out objects that remind him of his mother) it inadvertently brings him and his father together again. That, I could believe. Caitlin's belief that she needs to find closure for her entire community, though? Unfortunately, I felt manipulated by that sudden shift in plotting. It seemed necessary for the story for Caitlin to help her community come to terms with her brother's death, but I didn't believe for a moment that Caitlin the character would care about others in this manner. She goes from an inability to feel empathy one moment to becoming the most empathetic girl in the whole wide world the next. I didn't buy it.
The writing itself for the most part wasn't problematic. However, there were little moments when I found it getting a touch cutesy. After hearing Mrs. Brook tell her that she is convinced that Caitlin can learn empathy, our heroine slips off her shoes and touches her toes to the floor. "I pull my feet off of the floor and shove them back into my sneakers. At least I tried dipping my toe in empathy." That's a fair example of a couple points in the story where the text becomes a little too on the nose to feel real. It doesn't happen often, but there are moments.
The Asperger's I do not question because that is tricky territory. I do not have a child with Asperger's and Ms. Erskine does. However, this raises a fairly interesting point in and of itself. When Cynthia Lord wrote the Newbery Honor winning book Rules she made her narrator not an autistic boy, but rather his put upon older sister. This was remarkably clever of her. Then, when you get to the end of the book, the reader finds out via the bookflap that the author has an autistic son of her own. The book is therefore lent a kind of authenticity through this admission. As I read Mockingbird however, I found myself wondering if the author had any personal connection or knowledge of Asperger's that could lend the book similar authenticity. I read the bookflap and the Author's Note and came up with nothing. Nada. It was only through the grapevine that I heard the rumor that Ms. Erskine has a daughter of her own with Asperger's. Now why on earth would the book wish to hide this fact? By the time I reached the end I wanted to believe that the writer had some knowledge of the subject, but instead of including a list of useful sources, or even a website kids can check, the Author's Note speaks instead about the Virginia Tech shootings. A harrowing incident to be sure, but why avoid mentioning that someone you love has a connection to your main character? It made for a very strange gap.
Finally, there is Caitlin's voice. It drove me absolutely insane. Some have argued that this is a good thing. If Caitlin's voice annoys you then the author must be doing something right in creating a character that doesn't fall into the usual middle grade pattern of protagonists. She is unique. I note this theory, but I don't agree with it. My annoyance isn't necessarily who Caitlin is, but rather the fact that I never for one moment believe that I'm listening to a girl. Instead, for much of this book I felt like I was reading an adult woman putting herself into the head of a girl like Caitlin. How else to explain the off-putting "humorous" moments when Caitlin fails to understand a word or term? We have been assured that she reads at an adult level. Certainly her vocabulary should be through the roof, and yet she stumbles when she hits words as simple as "closure" and "fundraiser" (turning it into the strangely out-of-character "fun raiser"). It seems that Caitlin is only as smart as the plot allows her to be. Otherwise, she's adorably out-of-place, and that manipulation rang false.
Many folks have found themselves comparing this book to a fellow 2010 release, Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. Like Mockingbird, Ms. Draper's book is a first person narrative of a girl dealing with the world around her. In Draper's story the main character has cerebral palsy, just as Ms. Draper's daughter does (and just as that book ALSO fails to mention anywhere). The difference for me lies in the characters. What I have found, though, is that many people dislike these books for similar reasons. Some people find Mockingbird charming and Out of My Mind manipulative. Others feel it's the other way around. Personally, I think that Draper's book is the better of the two, though Ms. Erskine is an excellent writer. I'm certain that in the future she will produce books that I will like to read. Unfortunately, in the case of Mockingbird the problems outweigh the positives. The book doesn't ring true for me, even if the writer is talented. Hopefully in the future we'll see more of her work but for now I'll be recommending books like Out of My Mind and Milo over others like Mockingbird.
For ages 9-12.
...more
A moving story about an eleven-year-old girl with Asperger's syndrome whose older brother dies in a school shooting and the steps she takes to get closure. Kathryn Erskine pulls this poignant tale off wonderfully – it is sad, but sad in a way that gives the reader hope.
Throughout the novel I had to remind myself that Caitlin was eleven as opposed to five or six; this isn't a bad thing, and in fact it shows Erskine's talent for character development. To see her grow by learning about em
4.5 stars.A moving story about an eleven-year-old girl with Asperger's syndrome whose older brother dies in a school shooting and the steps she takes to get closure. Kathryn Erskine pulls this poignant tale off wonderfully – it is sad, but sad in a way that gives the reader hope.
Throughout the novel I had to remind myself that Caitlin was eleven as opposed to five or six; this isn't a bad thing, and in fact it shows Erskine's talent for character development. To see her grow by learning about empathy and closure by the end of the novel was truly touching – I almost cried, but I finished the book while in journalism class, and crying in public isn't exactly socially acceptable.
I also loved the To Kill a Mockingbird parallels. It's one of my favorite books, so seeing the concurrent themes and similar characters in Mockingbird was an additional bonus.
Highly recommended for children, teens, and adults alike – this book is definitely deserving of the National Book Award, and will leave readers aching to understand one another despite their personal problems.
Want to read more of my writing? Follow me here.
...more
Fast forward to now. After trying to read this a few times, I opted for audio and steeled myself for the impending bloodbath I imagined would be between the pages. Not so. Not so at all. The author handled the how of the death delicately and far from immediately. There was nothing graphic in the writing and nothing scary, beyond the fact that this is about losing a sibling to a terrifying act of nonsensical violence perpetrated in a place children expect to be safe.
As an adult, I found the story to be about so many things, among them primarily autism and a view of the world through a different lens, but also grief, empathy, closure, support, and relationships. I love any story for kids that fosters understanding and acceptance of others. That was, in my opinion, this book's redeeming quality. I found the main character well fleshed out and very lovable. Though the ending felt rushed, this was a story worth reading. I would just caution parents that regardless of the careful treatment of the subject, this is a difficult subject. Having read it, my daughter's words ring in my head: "No child wants to read a story about a school shooting, Mom."
I have had children's librarians tell me this is on the eighth grade summer reading list, that it is a middle grade book, and that this is not an elementary level book. I have seen it listed in Scholastic as sixth to eighth grade, but ultimately on the back it says Ages 10 and up. My PSA to parents is to know your child and perhaps be better prepared than I was.
3.75 stars
...more
"'How did you get to be so smart?'
I shrug. 'I'm really working hard on finesse.'
Then he takes my hands in his and I don't even pull them away because he is looking at my cuts closely and I would want to do that too if I saw cuts on somebody's hands so I let him look.
'Do you still really want to do this?'
I don't know if he means to keep cutting the oak tree or work on the chest but
This book doesn't lose its beauty or heart for me, no matter how many times I read it. It still gets me, every time."'How did you get to be so smart?'
I shrug. 'I'm really working hard on finesse.'
Then he takes my hands in his and I don't even pull them away because he is looking at my cuts closely and I would want to do that too if I saw cuts on somebody's hands so I let him look.
'Do you still really want to do this?'
I don't know if he means to keep cutting the oak tree or work on the chest but I say, 'Yes,' just in case he means the chest.
'You think this will bring us Closure?'
I shake my head. 'No. I know it will.'
He blows a little air out of his nose and nods. He lets go of my hands and does one more big sigh. 'Maybe we can make something good and strong and beautiful come out of this.'
Good and strong and beautiful. I like those words. They sound like Devon. I want to build something good and strong and beautiful."
I'm surprised that I never wrote a review for this before, but apparently I read it last summer, when I was away from Goodreads, so consider this a catch-up. This novel is told from the perspective of Caitlin, a 5th grader with Asperger's, who has just lost her older brother to a random school shooting. In addition, her mother has died of cancer years before, so now it's just her and her father in the house, and her father is taking the loss extremely hard. Caitlin, however, is struggling to understand the changes that have suddenly taken place in her life, and in addition to having to make it through each day with her condition, she now also has to face the prospect of life without Devon, the only other person who truly understood her, and who made it possible for her to face the world. With the help of a school counselor, some new friends, and her father, Caitlin attempts to find Closure to the events that took Devon out of her life.
I love the narrative voice in this novel, respect the way Erskine treats a character with Asperger's, and appreciate the fact that the book makes me cry. Every time. I think this is a gorgeous book, that does tug at the heartstrings, but with the situations Caitlin is in, it's hard not to have moments like that. There are tremendous lessons in this novel, about empathy, friendships, and generally dealing with people who are different than us. It would be a fantastic novel to teach, and not just for the lessons about disabilities. Larger lessons can easily be drawn from this one. It's a fantastic book, and one of my favorites that I put on my YA syllabus for this semester. I just hope the rest of the class liked it, also.
...more
Perhaps this is a small thing, but Devon's Eagle Scout project is a big part of the book, and it irritated me that what is described as his project would not earn him an Eagle--it just isn't big enough and doesn't include the requi
One of my sisters loved this, the other didn't like it. I'm somewhere in between. I thought the writing was well-done: smooth and polished. But otherwise, I thought this was heavy-handed (the author's note is a sad muddle which kind of explains this) and very one-note.Perhaps this is a small thing, but Devon's Eagle Scout project is a big part of the book, and it irritated me that what is described as his project would not earn him an Eagle--it just isn't big enough and doesn't include the required elements. I suppose it's possible that there's a wider scope to the project that wasn't described, but it doesn't really seem that way. He also would have been extremely young to earn an Eagle. (I assumed, until his age was specified and middle-school attendance mentioned, that he was quite a bit older--in high school--like the vast majority of Eagle Scouts.) While it isn't impossible--I have known of a few boys who earned the Eagle in eighth or ninth grade--it's unlikely. The boys I knew of had parents who were extremely involved in their kids' Boy Scout programs and pushing them regularly (or, in some cases, giving huge support to the boy's overdrive). The single dad in this book would not have had the time or (I think, based on what we see here) competitive drive to make it happen.
...more
I think Lee's book is more complex than Erskine's. And we do need books and films about school killings and autism and we are seeing more of them, and we'll need more. But I don't know if empathy is the only answer. It's necessary, don't get me wrong, but literature, to be great, needs more complexity and consternation and troubling questions and not just emotional solutions.
...more
If you haven't heard of this book yet, just to tell you, it won the National Book Award for young people's literature. And let me tell you, it certainly deserved it. Through Erskine's book we see the world through Caitlin's eyes and mind. She doesn't Get It (as she would say) most of the time, as she can't understand certain emotions or reactions. She has to work really hard to see how another person is feeling and how to make them feel better, instead of worse. It's very illuminating to see how a person with Asperger's might view the world, and gives us a tool to understand them better and the way they see things better.
Despite her lack of understanding others, Caitlin is remarkably intelligent and an incredible artist. Throughout the book, Erskine uses Caitlin's artistic talents as a device—her refusal to use color goes hand in hand with the way she likes to see the world. Black and white are much easier to deal with than colors that can run together and blur. But as she begins to learn empathy and friendship, as she begins to find the ever-illusive Closure, Caitlin begins to see that color might be useful.
What really struck me about this novel was the rawness and realness of everything. Erskine does not really censor much, but not in an inappropriate way. What I mean is, Caitlin just reports things as she sees them, bluntly and accurately—this is especially true when she describe her father's violent reaction when he hears the news of his son's death and his subsequent grieving (mostly detachment, refusal to speak of Devon, and lots of crying), and how she herself is dealing with the loss of the only person who seemed to understand how to talk to her. We also see things that Caitlin misses. She has incredible skills of observation, and doesn't shy away from telling us everything—actions and gestures that she doesn't understand are not lost on us, and I felt it all the more.
We also see the way a tragedy can affect everyone involved, even those who are related to the ones who caused it. It's heartbreaking, but the quest for Closure is a bold and valiant one that Caitlin tries to share with the entire community.
The mockingbird title comes from Devon and Caitlin's shared love for the movie To Kill a Mockingbird. Throughout, Caitlin keeps returning to this, to her nickname Scout that Devon gave her, and to all of their likeness to the three main characters in the film and book (Jem, Scout and Atticus). In the end, Devon is the symbolic mockingbird—dead despite his innocence, but living on in the memory of his family and of his community.
Incredibly moving and poignant (I use that word not as a cliche; I mean it with all my heart), Caitlin shows us a world that we mostly try to ignore. She shows us ways to deal with grief, both good and bad, but all real; after death and tragedy, we must find our way to Closure, and to living again.
...more
Caitlin is a litlle girl with Asperger whose elder brother was killed. Helpd by the school counselor she finds her way into a big, unclear world. Her story is told with feelings and love.
I really liked this book and I think one must read it in order to - at least - have a clue about Asperger and to better understand people with Asperger. It was a great experience reading the book. It is so deep snd sensitive. I really like how the author looks deep inside in human's soul.
Caitlin is a litlle girl with Asperger whose elder brother was killed. Helpd by the school counselor she finds her way into a big, unclear world. Her story is told with feelings and love.
I really liked this book and I think one must read it in order to - at least - have a clue about Asperger and to better understand people with Asperger. ...more
I don't get it. That is most likely how you will feel as you read this book. But once you get to the end, you will Get It, just like the main character, Caitlin. In this realistic fiction book, the author does a good job of putting me in the place of a person with Asperger's while telling a story with lots of emotion. It is not my favorite book, but it certainly teaches some good lessons.
This story takes place after a school shooting, and Caitlin's family and fellow students
***Spoiler Alert***I don't get it. That is most likely how you will feel as you read this book. But once you get to the end, you will Get It, just like the main character, Caitlin. In this realistic fiction book, the author does a good job of putting me in the place of a person with Asperger's while telling a story with lots of emotion. It is not my favorite book, but it certainly teaches some good lessons.
This story takes place after a school shooting, and Caitlin's family and fellow students have to deal with the effects at both home and school. Caitlin, the main character, has Asperger's, which is a type of autism. Therefore, she has a difficult time understanding people's feelings and emotions. Her bother, Devon, was one of the victims of the school shooting. So now the family is only Caitlin and her dad, who has to deal with the loss of his son while taking care of Caitlin. Throughout the story, Caitlin sees a school counselor who tries to help her learn about other people's emotions and learn about empathy. This creates the person vs. self conflict in the book because Caitlin must learn to empathize. Caitlin also learns that she, her father, and the whole community need closure to move on from the shooting. Caitlin and her father end up building a wooden chest, which was Devon's Eagle Scout project. This helps bring them closure. Caitlin also makes a new friend in Michael, who lost his mother in the school shooting. By befriending Michael, Caitlin also learns a bit about empathy. In the end, Caitlin finds closure and begins to understand people's feelings.
A theme of this book clearly is empathy. Not only does Caitlin have to learn how to feel empathy, but it seems as though the author's purpose is to make the reader feel empathy for Caitlin. The first person point of view helps us feel empathy for Caitlin. This point of view helps the reader see things as Caitlin sees them. It helps us get an understanding of what someone with Asperger's would think like. She has an emotions chart that she uses with the counselor to help her recognize people's emotions. We can see Caitlin try to use this chart when she sees people. For example, Caitlin thought this as she saw a boy sitting alone on the playground, "I wonder why he's sitting like that. He's rubbing his eyes so he's either sleepy or sad. I think those are the only two things it could be." I know I do not have to think like this; my brain automatically can recognize other people's emotions. It is interesting to see how Caitlin has to train her brain to do this.
I was moved by the symbol of Caitlin's drawing in the book too. She was really good at drawing, but she only drew in black and white throughout the book. However, at the end, she finally drew something in color. This is a symbol for the way Caitlin views things throughout the story. At first she only saw things one way or the other (black and white), but in the end she understands how emotions change and everyone see things differently (colors).
I compare this book to Anything But Typical because they are both told in first person by a child with a form of autism. I liked Anything But Typical better though because I think the author did a better job of helping me relate to the main character. In Mockingbird, I understood the way Caitlin's mind worked, but I had a hard time feeling empathy for her.
Overall, I enjoyed the book because it did teach me some empathy, but I did not love it. I would rate this book a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10 because I did not relate to Caitlin as much as I would have liked. I would recommend this book to anyone who liked the book Anything But Typical and any books like that where the theme involves empathy and understanding people who are different from ourselves. Mockingbird helped me to Get It, and hopefully you will read this book to Get It and learn a bit about empathy.
...more
http://www.teachmentortexts.com/2011/...
This was one of those books that I never wanted to end. I got to where I was reading so fast, that I realized that I wasn't reading the chapter titles any more- that is how much I was gobbling up her Caitlin's words. I could have read about Caitlin for days and days because her voice is so beautiful. Beautiful and real. This book puts asperger's into a format where others may find empathy for those around them who are a bit different. I love i
Reviewed at:http://www.teachmentortexts.com/2011/...
This was one of those books that I never wanted to end. I got to where I was reading so fast, that I realized that I wasn't reading the chapter titles any more- that is how much I was gobbling up her Caitlin's words. I could have read about Caitlin for days and days because her voice is so beautiful. Beautiful and real. This book puts asperger's into a format where others may find empathy for those around them who are a bit different. I love in the author's note that Kathryn Erskine points out that ignore and ignorance come from the same root. They go hand in hand. We have to be like Emma or Michael. People who look past the differences and find out who someone really is.
...more
I have a recently diagnosed child with Aspergers and whilst I'm familiarising myself with the term, he is just as I've always known him.
This book felt so familiar to me as I recognised so many traits in Caitlin that I see in my son. It is hard not to be drawn emotionally into this story, and I loved every page.
Wonderful stuff and easily 4 stars ⭐️
I was drawn it from the very first page of Mockingbird by the unique writing style and distinct voice of our eleven year old narrator, Caitlin, who has Aspergers. We are thrown
Mockingbird is a moving novel by Kathy Erskine in which she tries to send a very important message 'in hopes that we may all understand each other better'. This book was written after the Virginia Tech school shootings, which is of course a very emotive subject. Erskine handled the portrayal of the aftermath of this well.I was drawn it from the very first page of Mockingbird by the unique writing style and distinct voice of our eleven year old narrator, Caitlin, who has Aspergers. We are thrown into the highly emotional setting from the start when we discover that Caitlin's brother, Devon, was a victim of a school shooting. The whole story is about 'Getting It' (finding understanding), finding closure and acceptance.
It is really interesting to see the world from Caitlin's perspective. She has quite basic language but the thought behind her words makes them very intense. For the most part, her actions make her appear younger than her age, but her thoughts could be seen as complex. There is some light humour throughout the book even though the protagonist isn't intentionally, or aware that she is, amusing - this just makes the story all that more poignant. Caitlin is often very literal in her thoughts and speech and this shows how things are interpreted differently by different people. Even though Caitlin was different, it's easy to empathise with her.
Reading about Caitlin trying to make friends with others and her relationships in general were intriguing and her search to be able to empathise with other was touching. I found reading about her relationship with Michael, a younger boy whose mother was killed during the shooting, to be emotive and very intense but also very natural. Both Michael and Caitlin are young and their childishness, juxtaposed by the harsh issue of death and loss was very effective. I also found the difficult relationship between Caitlin and Josh, a brother of the shooter, to be very stirring. There was more miscommunication when people were calling him 'evil' for simply being related to the shooter.
I found one scene in particular, in which Mr Mason, a teacher, makes an offensive remark about autistic children to be quite crushing, I really felt emotion on behalf of Caitlin. Her relationship with her counsellor and future art teacher, however, were fantastic.
The title, Mockingbird, is a direct reference to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. When Devon was still alive, he used to call Caitlin Scout as when she says something, it makes people think. The parallels between the Caitlin and Scout's family were well linked. A lot of this story revolves around Caitlin and her father working together to complete building a chest for Devon's Eagle-Scout project, in an attempt to give them both closure. This is a very sentimental idea and it is heartwarming to read about. The relationship between Caitlin and her father is poignant and impressive and when the chest is completed, there was quite an overwhelming feeling.
The ending of this book was pleasant, but of course it wasn't perfect - it shouldn't and possibly couldn't be perfect. Not everyone is best friends or happy, but there is certainly room left for this to be a possibility. There's a good conclusion which leaves the story able to naturally progress.
Despite everything that happened, the community spirit is still there.
This was a fantastic and sometimes heart wrenching book that I would certainly recommend and I really anticipate reading more of Erskine's work.
...more
a third of the way through -- So the author has put together an interesting mix of elements in this story: 10-year-old Caitlin is the main character and has Aspberger's, her mother died when she was young and her brother was just killed in a school shooting. Her brother appears to be the one who got her and knew how to explain things to her. Now it's just her and her father left and he is stuck in grief. If I didn't know the author had a child with Aspberger's, I'd probably be wondering how realistic this is. But I read in an interview that her daughter has read the book and said it's pretty close to the way she thinks. That's enough for me to keep reading.
two thirds in -- I love reading about this character. I love the way her counselor works with her and explains stuff to her. I love the way Caitlin figures things out for herself or thinks back to the way her brother used to explain things. I find myself stopping at the places where she's confused by what people are saying and trying to think about how to reword it in the most direct terms. Have you ever thought about how often we use "polite" speech instead of speaking literally?
Great book. An easy read -- probably appropriate for 5th grade and up depending on vocabulary (Caitlin's is very high) and maturity level (the school shooting is brought up multiple times, but not in detail). I liked that Erskine dealt with a number of important issues for kids -- making friends, dealing with teachers who don't get you, dealing with parents who don't get you, knowing your strengths, trying to improve on your weaknesses, grief and loss, fitting in.
Also, it's pretty funny at times. Caitlin's school counselor is trying to help her learn how to make friends. One of the things she does is switch Caitlin to a recess with younger kids. Caitlin ends up befriending a first-grader named Michael (little kids tend to be more literal and direct). This little scene alone is worth reading the book for:
I watch and see how he gets his friends. He touches them but doesn't grab. He Looks At The Person but he doesn't get in their Personal Space... Then he points at me and starts running toward me. And it's like his friends are tied to him with string because they run to him from all directions until they end up in front of me....more
This is my friend Caitlin, Michael says.
I feel proud to hear him say that.
She can burp her ABCs!
No way!
Really?
You can?
Do it!
And I do. They think I am awesome. And we make other noises and roll our tongues and cross our eyes and wriggle our ears and hop in a circle and before I know it the bell rings and they all run to the teacher.
I feel like Snow White because now I have a bunch of little dwarf friends who love me.
Caitlin is a very logical and literal person, her emotions don't work the way they need to and she finds that to be her biggest challenge. She hates upsetting people, but ends up doing just that on many occasions due to her extreme honesty and her fai
This was such a heartwarming and moving novel that works for readers of any age. From the very first page, I found myself totally enraptured by eleven year old Caitlin, who suffers from Asperger's and has just lost her brother to a school shooting.Caitlin is a very logical and literal person, her emotions don't work the way they need to and she finds that to be her biggest challenge. She hates upsetting people, but ends up doing just that on many occasions due to her extreme honesty and her failed attempts at pleasing people with being truthful. She doesn't understand or know how to "flatter" and "compliment" people unless she really means it.
This entire story is dedicated to Caitlin finding closure. Quite literally, if I may add. She doesn't comprehend the idea of closure, but is on a mission to find it, because she is told that is what she needs to help her father move on from her brother's death. Her dad has taken the loss of his child so badly that he is barely functional and cannot communicate with his daughter without breaking into tears.
What's so beautiful about this story though is how Kathryn Erskine deals with the aftermath of a school shooting and the lives of those affected by it, including the younger brother of the shooter, Josh, who has been vilified due to his brother's actions. Caitlin does not understand that though, her reasons for not liking Josh are very simply because he is not a nice person and likes to bully other kids. Period. That is all there is to it.
So when Caitlin befriends seven year old Michael, who she later finds out had lost his mother in the shooting, it makes perfect sense that he is younger than her given that her approach to life make her seem much younger than she is. Their friendship comes very naturally; she found the perfect person to humor her and understand everything she says without the complication of emotions and flattery. She never needs to worry about Michael not saying what he means, and he in turn looks up to her and finds her hilarious. However, when Michael also befriends Josh, Caitlin is suddenly feeling extremely protective over her friend from this bully.
These relationships along with her pursuit to closure make this story extremely compelling and stirs so many emotions in you. You want to help her find closure, you want to help take care of her when her dad seems so unable to, and you want to be her friend. The way she takes responsibility over her dad, and takes the role of a grown up almost when at home is so touching that you just want to shake her dad and tell him to wake up and take control of the situation!
Such a sensitive topic handled so expertly by Erskine.
...more
Also, the ending is way too neat – not only in its representation of Asperger's, but on a structural level, too. Caitlin suddenly Gets It (i.e. what her father needs from her emotionally). I'm not going to lie, this made me cringe a bit, because it was way too pat and the core conflict of the novel was too easily fixed. This could have been such an interesting novel if Caitlin hadn't just Got It, but rather slowly began to display the empathy she felt for her father. I understand that the book was written for a middle-grade/young adult audience, but a key emotional subtlety was missing for all levels.
However, I thought that there were a couple of interesting points in the novel – mainly how Caitlin thinks about the world around her. She capitalises the concepts that she's trying to learn – including Minding Your Manners, and Looking At The Person. This really helped me to understand her way of seeing the world, and I thought it was done quite well. Finally, what I did not realise is that the central conflict – the death of Caitlin's brother, Devon – was based upon the Virginia Tech mass school shooting. I…was not expecting this. The way that Erskine drew the community together in their grief was incredibly moving.
Overall – I'm not going to beat around the bush. I think this book was written for neurotypicals. I was quite disappointed in it, and I hope that the next book I read that features neurodiversity will be better.
...more
Her brother was shot at school, by a fellow classmate. He left behind a half-finished Eagle Scout wooden chest, one little sister who is not allowed in his room and a father who now cries all the time.
Caitlin can't understand how Devon died; the doctors said he had a hole in his heart that couldn't be fixed or filled. But every time she walks past his closed bedroom door she half expects him to swing it open and invite he
Caitlin marks time from 'The Day Our Life Fell Apart.' The day Devon died.Her brother was shot at school, by a fellow classmate. He left behind a half-finished Eagle Scout wooden chest, one little sister who is not allowed in his room and a father who now cries all the time.
Caitlin can't understand how Devon died; the doctors said he had a hole in his heart that couldn't be fixed or filled. But every time she walks past his closed bedroom door she half expects him to swing it open and invite her into his room, to read from his favourite book, 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.
Caitlin can't get used to life without Devon, but she's trying. She goes to school and sees Mrs Brook, the counsellor who talks about feelings and how to express them. But Caitlin has never really understood how other people work, let alone how she's meant to work. Caitlin relies on the dictionary and her precise drawings to understand the world. Feelings just get in the way and make things confusing.
Also not helping matters are the kids at school. Josh is the cousin of the boy who shot Devon, and he's become meaner since the shooting, getting in other kid's personal space. But there's also Michael, whose mum was a teacher that died the same as Devon. Michael is younger than Caitlin, but they get along minding each other's manners.
Caitlin is trying to get used to life without Devon, but her dad isn't helping. He doesn't make dinner on time anymore, and the TV news has him crying at the drop of a hat. When Caitlin discovers the word 'closure' in the dictionary, she's sure it's just what she and her dad need. . . and she thinks the best way to get it will be by finishing Devon's wooden Eagle Scout chest.
'Mockingbird' is the middle-grade book from Kathryn Erskine, which won the National Book Award in 2010.
Kathryn Erskine lives in Virginia, and was deeply affected by the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech where 32 people were killed, and 25 others wounded. This event deeply impacted on Erskine, and in her author's bio it says she was "driven to understand how community and family – particularly families with special-needs children – dealt with this violent event. . . "
Erskine also has a daughter with Asperger syndrome, which is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction. Thus, in telling a story about how people reconnect after tragedy, Erskine thought to include a young protagonist whose very unique perspective of the world makes it difficult to connect at the best of times. 'Mockingbird' is told in first person through Caitlin's unique voice, and the result is a novel of shattering brilliance.
We meet Caitlin shortly after Devon died in a school shooting – leaving Caitlin and her father to pick up the pieces of their fallen-apart life. But Caitlin and her father aren't doing so well at picking up the pieces. A constant reminder to all that they have lost sits in the middle of their lounge room, a half-finished wooden chest intended for Devon's Eagle Scout project.
At home I think about Devon's Heart. I sit on the sofa and look at his chest. It's still under the gray sheet. There are rays of light coming in through the blinds and the dust swirls around in the beams and hits the chest and I wonder if any of the dust particles are Devon and if I can feel him.
I close my eyes and remember some of the things that happened on The Day Our Life Fell Apart.
The chest becomes a symbol for everything Caitlin and her father have lost. It's as hollow as the doctor's say Devon's heart was after the shooting, a CAVernous chest that cannot be filled or healed.
Caitlin is set adrift in this world without Devon. He used to say that they were like Jem and Scout from his favourite book, 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. Like the kids in that book, Devon and Caitlin's mother died when they were young, and ever since they only had their father . . . only, Jem didn't die in the book and leave Scout all alone and Atticus crying into the night. Caitlin misses Devon; she misses her brother who used to tell her how to act around other people and when to stop throwing a tantrum. She misses her dad being her dad and not this person who cries at the TV news.
As the story progresses, Caitlin unwittingly finds herself connecting with other children affected by the school shooting. A younger boy at school called Michael lost his mother in the shooting, and Caitlin's fellow classmates jump at loud noises, thinking it's a gunman returned. But Caitlin still needs closure for her and her father – and she'll get it by fixing Devon's chest.
Erskine has beautifully crafted this book of black and white. Caitlin may prefer to see the world without colour and confusion, but she has a deceptively deep perception of what goes on around her. She draws pictures precisely and has her own understanding of how words work (even when her teacher's tell her differently);
She has put an X over the H in Heart and written a lowercase h. It doesn't look right that way. I'm sure she's wrong about the special words and capital letters even though she's a teacher. How can any word be more special than Heart?
'Mockingbird' had me blubbering and laughing throughout the whole book – Erskine's stunning narrative regularly sits on the knife-edge between tragedy and beauty, hilarity and heartbreak. It's amazing how quickly a scene can be flipped on its head – like when Caitlin decides to literally get some quarter-cut pine – her unique perspective of the world turns from endearingly calamitous to gut-wrenching.
Kathryn Erskine's 'Mockingbird' is a novel about connecting. It's about picking up the pieces after tragedy and finding a way to move on, with the help of other people. I adored this book, despite all the tears it wrought from me. I also had a few laughs at Caitlin's endearing antics; she's one of the best protagonists I have read in a long time, and Erskine's precise Asperger's narrative is masterful. This is an absolutely must-read book.
...more
Welcome to the world of Caitlin Smith. Caitlin, the protagonist of Kathryn Erskine's Mockingbird, is an eleven-year-old girl with Asperger's syndrome. For people with Asperger's, the emotions of those around them are a mysterious and confusing thing. They struggle to identify the emotions of others, and, furthermore, to empathize with them. For example, when Caitlin sees a look on someone's face, she has to think back to a chart of different faces that her counselor, Ms. Brook, has been teaching her. Are the eyebrows raised? Is the mouth frowning? Are the eyes watery? Figuring out the emotion of the person in front of her is like solving a very frustrating puzzle. As you can imagine, this makes social connections very difficult. At the beginning of the book, Caitlin has no friends. And it certainly does not seem hopeful that Caitlin is coming to the end of fifth grade, right when any kid's social life starts to get a whole lot more complicated. Middle school: mean girls, cliques, in-crowds. If identifying a smile is tough, imagine trying to figure out sarcasm!
It doesn't stop there. When you meet Caitlin at the beginning of Mockingbird, you soon figure out that she and her father have just suffered a horrible tragedy--the death of her older brother Devon. Kathryn Erskine does a beautiful job of "showing" rather than "telling" in this book. The reader experiences everything in the novel through Caitlin's eyes. This is especially powerful because very often, Caitlin does not understand the feelings of those around her. Caitlin describes the things they do and say, the tiny movements of their faces and tremblings in their voices, and although she might not know what they are feeling, the reader does. And it is heart-breaking. So many times, while reading this book, I wanted to reach in and comfort the people around Caitlin, who were so clearly hurting from the loss of Devon.
At other times, I found myself wanting to jump into the book and translate for Caitlin. After a few chapters, you find yourself starting to understand Caitlin's logic. Often, what seems like a completely random tantrum to those around her, makes perfect sense if you understand the thought process that led Caitlin there. You start to realize that Devon was Caitlin's interpreter to the world. Through the memories she shares, you learn that Devon understood her like nobody else. He taught her how to interact with people and he was endlessly patient with her. Without him, it's like she has been abandoned in a foreign land without a map.
It is fascinating and beautiful to watch through Caitlin's eyes as she and her father (and the entire small, Virginia town in which they live) try to heal from the loss of Devon. It makes you thankful for things you never before thought of and it makes you realize that there is no one correct way to grieve. And although Caitlin's Asperger's often acts as an obstacle in her attempts to make connections, at other moments, it makes you question the logic of the "normal" way to act. At times, it is Caitlin's blunt honesty (which often accompanies her misunderstandings of other people's feelings) that leads to breakthroughs in her family's and community's mourning process.
Mockingbird is a very special book. It makes you step back and see the miracle of human closeness. Through Caitlin's observations of the world, you realize that human connections are a joyful, messy, complicated and extraordinary thing and that we should be deeply grateful for them. In one scene, she describes a little boy gathering his friends from around the playground. She watches in wonder and notices how "it's like his friends are tied to him with a string because they run to him from all directions until they all end up in front of me" (p. 95). It is often those who do not have something that can describe it the most beautifully and this is true of Caitlin throughout the book. I felt sad to part with her at the end but also felt thankful for all she had taught me. For anyone who would like to step into the shoes of someone you never thought you could understand, Mockingbird is a must-read.
...more
I wasn't actually planning to read Mockingbird, reading it was just a challenge for myself to see how fast can I read( with trying to just scan the words and turning pages so fast that some got torn, my max reading speed was 4 pages per minute ) so I didn't actually have lots of time to think about was has been going on and figure out my feeling during reading it. tho I like the Aspergeristic( is that a real word?) theme that was being used. I don't have Asperger myself but I've had a lot o 2.5/5
I wasn't actually planning to read Mockingbird, reading it was just a challenge for myself to see how fast can I read( with trying to just scan the words and turning pages so fast that some got torn, my max reading speed was 4 pages per minute ) so I didn't actually have lots of time to think about was has been going on and figure out my feeling during reading it. tho I like the Aspergeristic( is that a real word?) theme that was being used. I don't have Asperger myself but I've had a lot of close friends who had it, so I more or less know how they feel or think and can say than mockingbird war pretty much true.
I gave it the most average rating, 2.5 ...more
Well... I like it. I would like it more if I have not read similar books earlier I guess. Still, it's a nice read! The whole story was nicely put together and who does not love a character who sees everything as either black or white. At least I do. Because I envy people who sees things like that as I can't. I am a grey person. so yeah
The only problem I face while reading this book is... well... the protagonist reminds me of Caitlin Jenner. just the name people...just the name!! nothing else :vWell... I like it. I would like it more if I have not read similar books earlier I guess. Still, it's a nice read! The whole story was nicely put together and who does not love a character who sees everything as either black or white. At least I do. Because I envy people who sees things like that as I can't. I am a grey person. so yeah ! Caitlin... I like you!
...more
I felt that many of the scenarios in the book were not dealt with in a realistic manner. Working at a school (and with autistic children), I do not think that teachers and counselors would force children on opposite sides of a tragic shooting to play together.
She grew up mostly overseas and attended eight different schools, her favorite being the Hogwarts-type castle in Scotland.
The faculty, of course, did not consist of wizards, although... how did the headmistress know that it was the wee redhead who led the campaign Kathryn Erskine spent many years as a lawyer before realizing that she'd rather write things that people might actually enjoy reading.
She grew up mostly overseas and attended eight different schools, her favorite being the Hogwarts-type castle in Scotland.
The faculty, of course, did not consist of wizards, although... how did the headmistress know that it was the wee redhead who led the campaign to free the mice from the biology lab?
Erskine draws on her childhood and her second childhood through her children for her stories. She still loves to travel but nowadays most trips tend to be local, such as basketball and tennis courts, occasional emergency room visits, and the natural food store for very healthy organic chocolate with life saving flavonoids. ...more
Related Articles
Books are not like people. Books are safe."
Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account.
How to Draw a Mockingbird for Kids
Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6596547-mockingbird
0 Response to "How to Draw a Mockingbird for Kids"
Post a Comment