Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

this novel by Anne Martin was an okay read in my opinion. it has all the right moves. the protagonist,Rose has high functioning autism and is obsessed with homonyms. This gives it some fun word play for students, but after awhile it's novelty wears out. She lives with her dad because mom died and dad is not very accepting of Rose's condition. however, her Uncle Wendall loves Rose and fully understands Rose and what makes her tick.Dad mysteriously finds a dog for Rose and in steps a lovable addition to the family . Rose names the dog Rain. (A homonym of course) Rose interacts in a detached way at school with the help of her aid. Rose KNOWS how she is supposed to act but her seemingly detachment from normal interactions shows the reader the inside scoop in the life of the autistic. You can't help but root for Rose, but truly like her and think about her after you put the book down? No not really and this is where the book falls short for me as well as a dad who just acts weird. the ending was too pat and unsatisfying. I won't spoil it but Rose must step outside her normal routine and do the right thing. this is also a great lesson that the reader walks away with. I would say it would be a great read aloud accept you would have to stop and go over all the homonyms in parenthesis and this interrupts the flow of the reader. I would say a 3.5.

Rain Reign

Good review! I agree about the reading aloud part. I was imagining reading it to my students, and I realized the homonyms would be much more fun to find while reading it to yourself.

Had to agree about the homonyms in parentheses thing messing up my reading. I might give the book a little higher rating, though not much. It gave me some food for thought after I finished--I started putting a few things together in my head and had them make more sense.