Their relationship is so key to Caitlin’s happiness and welfare and I couldn’t get enough of the interactions between the two of them. She is learning the merits of having friends and how to begin socialisation successfully to make new friends.Īs a teacher, I personally really loved seeing the relationship between Caitlin and her counsellor/teacher. She openly struggles with identifying emotions and social appropriateness due to her AS and by the end we see a Caitlin whose eyes are much wider open to the world around her than they are at the beginning of the book. This is dealt with in a delicate and realistic manner and I felt it to be very touching.Īs you read this book, you realise how hard life is for Caitlin outside of her family situation. Grief is explored in this book from Caitlin’s view of her father’s loss of a son but also her own loss as she begins to come to terms with the loss. As we enter this story, we are immediately confronted with the heart-breaking situation of a school shooting with has resulted in the loss of Caitlin’s brother, Devon. This novel cannot be viewed purely as a ‘book about a girl with Asperger’s Syndrome’. I thought this was a beautifully written story about the reality of love, loss, grief and emotion. I think it’s important to remember that each and every human being is different and this, of course, includes those with AS. I’ve seen some conflicting views of this beautifully written novel and they all seem to boil down to people feeling that this novel does not accurately reflect the reality of Asperger’s Syndrome. And in her search for it, Caitlin discovers that the world may not be black and white after all. Then she comes across the word closure- and she realizes this is what she needs.

Caitlin wants everything to go back to the way things were, but she doesn’t know how to do that. But Devon has died, and Caitlin’s dad is so distraught that he is just not helpful. Before, when things got confusing, Caitlin went to her older brother, Devon, for help. The world according to her is black and white anything in between is confusing.

Mockingbird erskine novel