![]() ![]() When Rose asks if the dog is “a gift” her father answers: “Yes, she’s a gift, Rose. A rule-follower like many kids on the spectrum, Rose asks if they should look for the owners her father responds, “If they didn’t care enough to get her a collar then they don’t deserve her.” She lives in upstate New York with her volatile, intermittently employed father, has a kind uncle who drives her to school, and loves that “the word ‘pair’ implies two but is part of a homonym trio - pair, pear and pare.” The plot takes off as Rose’s father says they can keep a collarless dog he found in a downpour. The narrator, a fifth grader named Rose, has a passion for the homonym - a word that sounds just like another word (it’s right there in the rather clunky title). ![]() Though I’m not sure age subcategories are pertinent. Martin, a Newbery Honor winner, offers this affecting, elegantly burnished middle-grade book about a girl with autism. What might be called “autism lit” has evolved, as well, with novels and nonfiction showcasing autism’s piquant and painful weave of deep weaknesses and subtle, splintered strengths. Those who don’t can watch Sheldon’s autistic-like behaviors on CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory.” Who doesn’t now know that this condition is framed by a wide spectrum, or that diagnosed cases continue to rise? With one in 68 children affected, tens of millions in the United States know someone, or of someone, on the spectrum. Autism has come of age, rapidly growing into a matter of common knowledge. ![]()
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