Rules

When Cynthia Lord sat down to write her first children's book, she knew it would be a middle-grade novel. As she recalls, "I grew up next to a lake in New Hampshire and I remember being ten years old, lying on our pier, listening to the seagulls calling, and daydreaming about Borrowers and Chocolate Factories and Secret Gardens."In her debut novel Rules, twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life, which is near impossible with a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. Filled with humor and warmth, Rules takes a candid and sensitive look at feeling different and finding acceptance—beyond the rules. A former teacher and bookseller, Cynthia still enjoys lying on a pier, reading a good book. And she hears plenty of seagulls at her home near the ocean in Maine, where she lives with her husband and their two children.