Book #78: Mockingbird

Book #78: Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

March 12, 2014


This particular book came out of nowhere. See, recently some of my stress has been alleviated by our facilitator (who is incredible with some of our most emotionally wrought students, so patient) coming on full-time on our campus. She's teaching all of the students in a life skills class, and the reading that she assigned was this particular novel. When she described it, I was fascinated. I snagged a copy and finished it off quickly tonight.

It's an interesting book, aimed at kids, of course. It's told from the perspective of Caitlin, a young girl with Asperger's (heehee, "assburgers"). She lives with her widower father; it's eventually revealed in the story that her mother died of cancer years before. I would have assumed that, having a child on the "spectrum" was what drove the mother away, so I found it interesting the way the author did it. I wonder if she had it in mind all along, or if she waffled, and finally went with what some might view as the cop-out. Anyway, it made me look at Harold, her father, just a little differently. Not necessarily in a bad way...I'm not real sure how to explain it.

Caitlin's narrative is laugh-out-loud funny at times. I'm someone who has felt awkward in social situations many a time, sometimes not sure how to read people, which is what Caitlin struggles with just about every second. Quite frankly, I feel torn about Mrs. Brook's approach to helping Caitlin. On the one hand, it seems like Caitlin, being as "high functioning" as she is (she's highly intelligent, just very much lacking in social graces and tact), shouldn't be bothered so much about her introverted ways. If prefers to be by herself, what of it? Who's it hurting? But on the other hand, the kid needs to function in this world, whether she likes it or not. Mrs. Brook obviously sees that Caitlin has potential, and won't allow something like her lack of people skills to stand in the way of an otherwise good future. And the connections that Caitlin begins to make with some of her schoolmates helps her to heal from her brother Devon's death.

The emotional part of the story comes from the fact that it takes place right after a school shooting. Caitlin's brother Devon, your all-American good kid, a baseball player and a Boy Scout (Life, planning for Eagle already at the age of 13), and sweet to his sister. They have a strong bond; Caitlin frequently recalls how Devon used to help her in social situations, keeping her calm and helping her do the "right" things. When Devon is shot by a classmate in the heart, he leaves behind a distraught father (crying in the shower; I couldn't help imaging David Cross wearing cut-offs and sobbing in the tub), a confused sister, and a shocked community. Caitlin, after finishing the chest that Devon had started as part of his Eagle Scout project, with her father, has a realization that her brother will never get to do all of the things that he loved, ever again. This is the first time she is able to identify her feelings about her brother's death; prior to that, it had been in the form of tantrums, not something their family has never dealt with before.

Caitlin becomes friends with a first grader named Michael, whose mother, a teacher at Devon's school, was also killed in the shooting. The little boy, who doesn't notice all that much that Caitlin is "different," bonds with both her and Josh, a boy in Caitlin's grade whose cousin was a shooter (he was killed by the police). In this small community, Josh and his family bear the burden of his cousin's guilt, and Josh lashes out at his classmates, and is only nice to young Michael. Josh is an interesting character; I couldn't help thinking a bit of Eva from We Need to Talk about Kevin as he yelled at the kids on the playground to stop blaming him for the shooting. Poor kid.

The author leaves some hope for Caitlin at the end of the book, that she'll find some place in the social life of middle school. I hope she does, at least enough that she doesn't feel alone, but I hope she doesn't change. She's an amazing artist, and she's so literal, it's hysterical. There are some people in her life who show some appreciation for the person that she really is; Mrs. Brook is one of them, though she is the one pushing her to be more social.

Oh, the title. It is a reference to To Kill a Mockingbird; the title actually made me think of that book right away, naturally. See, the widower father (Caitlin even compares her father to Atticus at one point), the guiding older brother and the brazen little sister. Devon had even called Caitlin 'Scout,' and whenever she feels overwhelmed or upset, she goes to hide in his room, in her "hidey hole," and she can look at where her brother had carved her nickname into the bottom of his drawer. I thought that this book was rather poignant, and would definitely be powerful for its intended audience. I'm very glad that I read it, since all of my students are. I hope to participate in some of the discussion with them!