Rebekah’s Homonym List:
Break - Brake
Chews - Choose
For - Four/Fore
Pair - Pear/Pare
Rain - Reign/Rein
Rose - Rows
Book
#4 in our Mother-Son Book Club
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Rose Howard has Asperger’s syndrome, and is obsessed with
homonyms (even her name is a homonym). She gave her dog Rain a name with two
homonyms (Reign, Rein), which, according to Rose’s rules of homonyms, is very
special. Not everyone understands Rose’s obsessions, her rules, or the other
things that make her different – not her teacher, not other kids, and not her
single father.
When a storm hits their rural town, rivers overflow, roads are
flooded, and Rain goes missing. Rose’s
father shouldn’t have let Rain out. Now Rose has to find her dog, even if it
means leaving her routines and safe places to search.
Hearts will break and spirits will soar for this powerful story,
brilliantly told from Rose’s point of view.
223 pages
MY REVIEW
3.5 out of 5 *Stars*
This
book took me to a place I had never been before. Into the mind of a character with a form of
autism, Asperger’s. Because of this, it
was a little hard to follow. The book
kept veering off track from the storyline and endlessly talking about
homophones, also known as homonyms. I
get it. I know why. It’s because the book is written as if Rose
is telling a story, and her mind is obsessed with homophones. Even though I understood why, it still didn’t
make it easier to follow.
At the
beginning of chapter 3, Rose says “If you are not interested in homonyms at
all, stop-reading here and skip to Chapter 4.” Of course my son took this
literally and went ahead a chapter. I
read it, and sure enough it was all about Rose’s list of homonyms and her rules
of what makes them.
The story
Rose takes us through is when she loses her dog, her best friend, the night of
a hurricane. She copes with the loss,
with the struggle to find him, with the lack of understanding from her dad, and
even her heartache, all in her own way, with the help of her best Uncle
Weldon. It was a quick read, and by the
end, you learn to roll with the homonyms because you know that’s how Rose sees
the world.
“I
look across the field again, and then up to the sky, which is a vast pale
blue. I remember the music festival, and
the notes that soared above our heads. I
think about the homonyms soared and sword. They’re an interesting pair,
because soared is a very nice word,
especially when you imagine musical notes swooshing through the evening air,
but sword indicates weaponry, so that
isn’t a nice word at all. That’s one of the many things I like about homonyms.
Most of them seem unrelated, some seem to be opposites, like soared and sword, but a few make lovely connections if you’re open to changing
your perspective when you think about them.
I
stand up, then squint my eyes shut for (fore/four) a moment, remembering the
night (knight) with Uncle Weldon when the music soared (sword) through (threw)
the air (heir/err), and the notes and the sky and our (hour) hearts were one
(won).”
That’s
a small glimpse to how the book is written.
Rose has such a beautiful heart, and once you learn to read past the
homonyms, you can truly see that.
In the
book, you want to hate her dad. I know
that I did. Let me just say, it is hard being a parent. We all do and say things we are not proud of,
and it is way harder for a parent of a child that has special needs, especially
for a solo parent such as Rose’s dad.
Rose was different, and it was hard for him to accept. He would get mad at her easily over the
things she couldn’t help; extra meetings at school, the extra attention that
she needed, her unique way of thinking, or even her homophone list. He’s not
perfect by any means, but by the time you finish the book, you know that he
truly loved her as much as he could.
********************Young
Reader Review********************
I
didn’t enjoy there being so many homophones.
It was a good book, but it would have been better and easier to follow
without so many of them. It was hard to
relate to the main character because of her Asperger’s, but I really enjoyed
reading about her Uncle. He was nice and
had a lot of patience with Rose. I would
recommend the book for other kids my age to read. It wasn’t my favorite, but it was still
good.
*****************************************************************
I also
would recommend this book for any young reader.
The story is a little mundane for adults, but it’s a good book to show
young kids that even though someone is different, they still feel and think the
same way as everyone else. You just have
to work a little harder to understand them. Good read!
Until
next time…
Happy
Reading, Everyone!!
For more on this book and where you can find it, click here.
