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isaacblevins 's review for:
Rain Reign
by Ann M. Martin
My heart is full. It is full of a girl named Rose and a dog named Rain and the story they share. It is a story of great love, great loss and tremendous bravery - and a story that I will continue to ponder for a good while. Ann Martin has written a beautiful novel that is just as complicated and delicate as real life.
Rose is a young girl with high functioning autism who lives with her single father and eventually with Rain, a dog her father brought home for her one rainy night. Among Rose's interests are homophones, prime numbers and rules. In a world that is often confusing and frustrating, these topics bring her a great deal of comfort, but not as much comfort as Rain. When a hurricane blows through and Rain is lost in the storm, Rose works to find her dog...and ends up finding a lot more than she expected.
At the core of this story are Rose, her father, and her Uncle Weldon. Weldon and Rose's father grew up bouncing around the foster system. As adults they have grown into very different men. Since the novel is written from Rose's point of view, it is interesting to see how she interprets their personalities and how she responds to them. Rose's autism is depicted honestly and we see the difficulties she has, but also the ways she has learned to cope. So often authors fall back on stereotypical depictions of autism and seems to only feature difficult savants, but Martin rises above such a depiction. Rose is incredibly self aware and becomes increasingly more so as the book goes on. We see her grow bit by bit, realizing before she does that she is changing. When we leave her at the end of the novel she is not the same person we started with - and it is with much emotion that we see how all the aspects of her story have come together to create this new person.
I am recommending this book to all of my fellow teachers as a wonderful depiction of an autistic viewpoint. Young people will also benefit from spending some time with Rose and seeing the world through her eyes. If you enjoy coming of age stories or emotional stories of families, then this book will certainly appeal to you. If you love stories of the relationship between people and animals, then you'll love Rain as well.
Rose is a young girl with high functioning autism who lives with her single father and eventually with Rain, a dog her father brought home for her one rainy night. Among Rose's interests are homophones, prime numbers and rules. In a world that is often confusing and frustrating, these topics bring her a great deal of comfort, but not as much comfort as Rain. When a hurricane blows through and Rain is lost in the storm, Rose works to find her dog...and ends up finding a lot more than she expected.
At the core of this story are Rose, her father, and her Uncle Weldon. Weldon and Rose's father grew up bouncing around the foster system. As adults they have grown into very different men. Since the novel is written from Rose's point of view, it is interesting to see how she interprets their personalities and how she responds to them. Rose's autism is depicted honestly and we see the difficulties she has, but also the ways she has learned to cope. So often authors fall back on stereotypical depictions of autism and seems to only feature difficult savants, but Martin rises above such a depiction. Rose is incredibly self aware and becomes increasingly more so as the book goes on. We see her grow bit by bit, realizing before she does that she is changing. When we leave her at the end of the novel she is not the same person we started with - and it is with much emotion that we see how all the aspects of her story have come together to create this new person.
I am recommending this book to all of my fellow teachers as a wonderful depiction of an autistic viewpoint. Young people will also benefit from spending some time with Rose and seeing the world through her eyes. If you enjoy coming of age stories or emotional stories of families, then this book will certainly appeal to you. If you love stories of the relationship between people and animals, then you'll love Rain as well.