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Summary —
Caitlin Smith is a young girl who is coping with the recent death of her older brother, Devon, who was killed at a school shooting. Things are especially difficult for Caitlin, because she has Asperger’s Syndrome. She has a hard time with emotionally charged concepts like closure, empathy, and friendship; her brother was the one person who best helped her make sense of a confusing world. Her father is a widower who now has to handle the grief of losing a child all by himself. He seems hardly equipped to handle his own emotions, much less help Caitlin come to terms with her brother’s death. Luckily for Caitlin, the school’s counselor, Mrs. Brooks, is able to reach out to her and help her navigate through her grief. Caitlin comes across the word closure, and she tries to understand how to achieve it for herself and for her father. Under Mrs. Brook’s guidance, she spends part of her recess with some of the younger children at her school, where she makes friends with Michael, a little boy whose mother was a teacher killed at the same school shooting as Devon. Devon had been planning to work on his Eagle project by teaching others how to make a mission chest; he and his father had just started working on it before he was killed. Now, the chest is hidden under a sheet, never to be completed. Caitlin becomes convinced that if her father would teach her how to complete the chest, they could finish Devon’s project and perhaps find some closure. At first, her dad is can’t bring himself to touch the project, but eventually the two work together and finish the chest. They then decide to donate it to the school in memory of Devon. While it doesn’t bring Caitlin back to how things were, working on Devon’s chest helps both her and her father heal. Caitlin starts to understand that Michael is also in need of some closure in his struggle to understand the loss of his mother. Caitlin then recognizes that the whole community was affect by the shooting and they are all looking to find some way to heal.
Lucien’s thoughts —
The whole novel is told from Caitlin’s perspective, and she is often times unaware of the emotional repercussions of her words and actions. The audience is able to understand her father’s grief in a way that Caitlin can’t quite grasp and the book is that much more painful for it. I constantly found myself near tears as Caitlin doesn’t quite understand why her father is behaving the way he is. It’s a poignant account of how a whole community is affected by acts of violence. Caitlin’s disability is an interesting filter and narrative voice for a book that realistically examines how to get past the pain and loss in the face of a random act of violence. I think this book is an important novel to help students view the world from the perspective of someone who is different in their mental processing. Erskine obviously has lots of experience and understanding of a person with AS, and the voice of the main protagonist is that much richer for it. I think this book has the ability to open up readers to look at people with AS as something other than “weird” or “freaky”. As is evident by her actions, Caitlin is intelligent and talented (especially in her art) but her way of understanding the chaos around her is very different than most girls. In Erskine’s hands, we root for Caitlin to find some comfort and healing, which gladly, she does.
Librarian’s use —
I think that this book’s main topic is how to find ways to cope with grief and it’s something that many readers can relate to. Many children have lost grandparents or other close relatives; some may have even lost siblings or parents, like in this book. I think using the book as a way to discuss some of the ways people behave in the days after the loss of a loved one is a great idea. Readers can share about people they have lost, how they felt at first and what they have done since then to accept the grieving process.
Other reviews — Stevenson, D. (2010). Mockingbird (review). Bulletin of the center for children’s books, 63(9), 377.
While autistic-spectrum disorders are a fairly common topic in children's literature at the moment, Caitlin is a distinct personality, and the book allows her some genuinely offputting habits and mannerisms as well as making her sympathetic through her narration; underneath her protagonist's voice, Erskine has a smooth and accessible style that keeps the story flowing. The book is rather overpacked with message, symbolism, and hackneyed emotional journeys, however, straining credulity to get everybody to resolution and to do so in a way that allows readers in on the process, and Caitlin devolves from a character into a sentimental cliché, the innocent vessel through which wisdom is conveyed. For readers who appreciate an emotional family story, however, the book offers some gentle reading on a complicated subject.
Brautigam, F. (2010). Erskine, Kathryn. Mockingbird. School library journal, 56 (4). 154-156.
From inside Caitlin's head, readers see the very personal aftermath of a middle school shooting that took the life of the older brother she adored. Caitlin is a bright fifth grader and a gifted artist. She also has Asperger's syndrome, and her brother, Devon, was the one who helped her interpret the world. Now she has only her father, a widower who is grieving anew and whose ability to relate to his daughter is limited. A compassionate school counselor works with her, trying to teach her the social skills that are so difficult for her. Through her own efforts and her therapy sessions, she begins to come to terms with her loss and makes her first, tentative steps toward friendship. Caitlin's thought processes, including her own brand of logic, are made remarkably clear. The longer readers spend in the child's world, the more understandable her entirely literal and dispassionate interpretations are. Marred slightly by the portrayal of Devon as a perfect being, this is nonetheless a valuable book. After getting to know Caitlin, young people's tendencies to label those around them as either "normal" or "weird" will seem as simplistic and inadequate a system as it truly is.
Mockingbird. (2010). Kirkus reviews, 78 (5), 198.
This heartbreaking story is delivered in the straightforward, often funny voice of a fifth-grade girl with Asperger's syndrome, who is frustrated by her inability to put herself in someone else's shoes. Caitlin's counselor, Mrs. Brook, tries to teach her how to empathize, but Caitlin is used to depending on her big brother Devon for guidance on such matters. Tragically, Devon has been killed in a school shooting. Caitlin, her dad and her schoolmates try to cope, and it is the deep grief they all share that ultimately helps Caitlin get to empathy. As readers celebrate this milestone with Caitlin, they realize that they too have been developing empathy by walking a while in her shoes, experiencing the distinctive way that she sees and interacts with the world. Erskine draws directly and indirectly on To Kill a Mockingbird and riffs on its central theme: The destruction of an innocent is perhaps both the deepest kind of psychosocial wound a community can face and its greatest opportunity for psychological and spiritual growth.
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