Mockingbird

Short read about a girl on the autism spectrum coming to terms with grief. If you enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant or the Edward series, you'll like this one.

Somethings made me squirm, somethings I loved, some of these things aren't mutually exclusive. Caitlin at times felt very real and I loved that at times she was ‘bratty'. I also felt that she was very inconsistent, sometimes that inconsistency broke my suspension of disbelief, yet other times it paradoxically lent to her authenticity.
Her portrayal of Aspergers is her own. There's some rigidity, not understanding figurative language/taking things literally (yet at times being very adept at using it squirm or engaging in imaginative play), not being self aware, repetitive motions, routines, etc.

There were others things that frustrated me, but they're supposed to (?). Such as Caitlin's school. Her teachers are awful at treating her with respect - one refers to her as autistic in front of the class and at another time she is shaken by a teacher. I understand that the author may have chosen to portray imperfect teachers, but I felt it was incongruent because it talked a lot about how it's such a small community, how it's so close. The author also says that this was supposed to show her receiving early intervention, but if that were the case these things would not have happened. I give some leniency due to ‘Unreliable narrator', but these were out of line.

Caitlin's (mis)understanding of working in a group project irritated me, she's at least ten and has a ridiculously high reading level. She knows what group means.

I related very strongly to Caitlin as an autistic person. I was very much like her when I was 11. What keeps me from rating this book 5 stars, however, is Erskine's presentation of autism as a behavioral spectrum from “high” to “low” functioning, and her broad endorsement of early intervention. Autism is not a linear spectrum, nor is it a behavioral spectrum: it is a spectrum in that every autistic person has different skill sets that often vary and fluctuate throughout the autistic person's lifetime. Erskine's broad endorsement of early intervention is irresponsible and reflects a lack of research into what autistic adults have been saying about the extremely negative effects ABA and other behavioristic therapies (any therapy with “make the autistic kid act neurotypical” as a goal) had on their self esteem and general well being (often in the form of developing PTSD). The goals of early intervention should be to help the autistic person learn more about herself & the world and to develop self-advocacy skills, not to make her act like a neurotypical person. An endorsement of early intervention that does not take this information into account is irresponsible and dangerous.

This is one of those books where the author has too much going on in their head and tries to put it down on paper. Then because of the subjects she touches on, school shootings and Asperger's the book is lauded to be amazing and wins awards. It becomes The Book Everyone Should Read.

I don't think that's untrue. I think that Mockingbird does give us a good insight into what it means to have Asperger's, but kind of in a way that the author read a lot of books about what having Asperger's is like and then put it into her fictional setting. At times it feels incredibly contrived. Caitlin never feels like a real person to me, but like a caricature of a child with Asperger's. But of course, I have no experience with anyone with Asperger's so I'm not a good judge. It's just to me, Caitlin felt like a made up character (which, of course, she was) who never became more than that to me.

In a sort of acknowledgement or afterword, Erksine talks about the Virginia Tech shootings and how close that was to her home, how it affected her. She wanted to write a book that talked about it. I don't know that this feeling came across in this book. The school shooting was not something discussed at length in the book because it wasn't something that Caitlin necessarily understood as anything but The Day Our Life Fell Apart. We were privy to the process of dealing with losing a sibling and at a weaker view losing a child, but not really what it meant after that.

I think maybe I would have liked the book more had it just been Caitlin dealing with everyday life and counseling. Wading through mainstream school and life with a single father who seems to not really know how to deal with her. The introduction of a school shooting seemed unnecessary. It didn't bring anything relevant to the table.

A fairly realistic voice for an autistic protagonist. I found it preferable to the other YA autism book I read at the same time ([b:Al Capone Does My Shirts 89716 Al Capone Does My Shirts Gennifer Choldenko https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1309198452s/89716.jpg 2952174]), but not having read YA in a long time, parts seemed very superficial. In addition, the character sometimes seemed young or naive in a way that does not sync with my experience with high functioning individuals on the autism spectrum