Catherine is a normal 12-year-old, excited that summer has started and that a new girl her age is moving in next door. But there's one potential obstacle to her summer plans: her autistic younger brother David.
Her parents assume that everyone understands and will make allowances for him, but Catherine knows that no one actually understands and is uncomfortable around David. She loves him and takes up for him whenever necessary, but she's at the point where a home-life in which she's thought of only after her brother's needs are handled (and often she's the one tasked with handling those needs) is becoming lonely.
She grows up fast over the course of a few weeks -- almost too fast to be believed, but I'll give that a pass. Catherine meets Jason, a new patient at David's occupational therapy clinic. Jason's in a wheelchair and can only communicate by touching pictures in his book with his curled fingers. She's uncomfortable around him -- almost repulsed and frightened -- but she reaches out anyway to beef up his phrase book so he's not stuck with words that can't possibly express what he means. For example, she makes him a "Whatever" card, finally giving him some pre-teen frustration vocabulary. As she spends time with him in the waiting room, her revulsion gives way to actual friendship.
The author does a fantastic job of letting us watch the shift in her feelings for Jason, without ever hammering us over the head with it. Just as Catherine had to know Jason in order to stop being uncomfortable, people would need to know David to accept him. It's a wonderful book that I hope will find its way into the hands of many pre-teens.
B+
