House+Rules

HOUSE RULES Written By: Jodi Picoult

Reviewed By: Alyssa Duffy __**Biographical Information:**__ ISBN-13: 97807423296441 Publisher: Washington Square Press Publication Date: 11/9/2010 Pages: 560

__**Author Biography:**__ Jodi Picoult has been named a **#1 //New York Times// Best Seller Author**. She is the bestselling author of 18 novels; other recent popular titles are, My Sister’s Keeper, Change of Heart and Nineteen Minutes. Jodi Picoult studied at Princeton, where she published two short stories in Seventeen Magazine. Picoult has been awarded the New England Bookseller Award for Fiction, Alex Award from the YALSA, the Book Browse Diamond Award, lifetime achievement award for mainstream fiction, and many more. Jodi Picoult currently lives in Hanover, New Hampshire with her husband and 3 children.

__**Summary:**__  __House Rules__ is about a teenage boy, Jacob Hunt, who has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. Jacob struggles with everyday socially acceptable behaviors, and like most children with Asperger’s has a favorite topic. Jacob’s topic is forensic analysis, but his interest in recreating crime scenes and obsession with CrimeBusters may cause him more trouble than he can handle. Throughout the story Jacob’s mother and brother, Emma and Theo, discuss their struggles in trying to live what they want to consider a “normal lifestyle.”

__**Book Review:**__  I personally really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to any one who cares about or works with children. __House Rules__ is a sentimental story that will touch the hearts of anyone who reads it. This book was extremely relevant to my lifestyle because I work over the summer with a middle-school aged girl who is Autistic. This story provided an in-depth look at the home life of a child with Asperger’s, an insider look on how to handle their behaviors, as well as narration from Jacob to really allow readers to be engaged in what was going on.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">__**Literary Element Analysis:**__ <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">In __House Rules,__ Jodi Picoult has a unique writing style that helps with character development, and allows readers to feel as though they are each of the key characters. Picoult writes the novel from multiple viewpoints that provide readers with the ability to relate with Jacob, Emma, and Theo. In the beginning of the book Jacob states, “I don’t get into trouble because rules are what keep me sane. Rules mean that the day is going to go exactly the way I am predicting it to be. I do what I’m told; I just wish everyone else would do it too. We have rules in our house: 1. Clean up your own messes. 2. Tell the truth. 3. Brush your teeth twice a day. 4. Don’t be late to school. 5. Take care of your brother; he’s the only one you’ve got.” And throughout the book all the characters touch upon these rules, especially number two, as well as the list of many things that Jacob can’t stand. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> //<span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">The following are examples of different viewpoints: // <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">**__ Emma [When taking Jacob grocery shopping]: __** “It’s part of his routine, which means we rarely stray from it. Anything new has to be introduced early on, and prepared for – whether that’s a dentist appointment or a vacation or a new student joining his math class midyear. I knew that he’d have his faux crime scene completely cleaned up before eleven o’clock, because that’s when the Free Sample Lady sets up her table in the front of the Townsend Food Co-op.” … “The spot that the Free Sample Lady usually occupies is empty. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">“Jacob,” I say immediately, “it’s not a big deal.” <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">He looks at his watch. “It’s 11:15. She comes at 11 and leaves at 12.” <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">“Something must have happened.” <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">“Bunion surgery,” calls an employee, who is stacking packages of carrots within earshot. “She’ll be back in four weeks.” <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Jacob’s hand begins to flap against his leg. I glance around the store, mentally calculating whether it would cause more of a scene to try to get Jacob out of here before the stimming turns into a full-blown breakdown; or whether I can talk him through this. “You know how Mrs. Pinham had to leave school for three weeks when she got shingles, and she couldn’t tell you beforehand? This is the same thing.” “But it’s 11:15,” Jacob says.” ( <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">**__ Theo [Thinking about how his mother says Jacob isn’t violent]: __** “I have twenty-four stitches on my face, thanks to my brother. Ten of them cut through my left eyebrow, thanks to the time that Jacob knocked over my high chair when I was eight months old. The other fourteen are on my chin, from Christmas 2003, when I got so excited about some stupid gift that I crumpled the wrapping paper, and Jacob went ballistic at the sound. The reason I’m telling you this has nothing to do with my brother, though. It’s because my mother will tell you Jacob’s not violent, but I am living proof that she’s kidding herself. I am supposed to make exceptions for Jacob; it’s one of our unwritten house rules.” (11) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">**__ Jacob [What he can’t stand and other people]: __** “My mother says sometimes I don’t even try. I say I try all the time, and I keep getting rejected. I’m not even sad about it, really. Why would I want to be friends with kids who are nasty to people like me, anyway? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">There are some things I really can’t stand. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">I have spent much of my eighteen years learning how to exist in a world that is occasionally orange, chaotic, and too loud.” (20) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 160%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 160%;">
 * 1) <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">The sound of paper being crumpled. I can’t tell you why, but it makes me feel like someone’s doing that to all my internal organs.
 * 2) <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Too much noise or flashing lights.
 * 3) <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Having plans change.
 * 4) <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Missing CrimeBusters, which is on the USA Network at 4:30 every day, thank to the wonders of syndication. Even though I know all 114 of the episodes by heart, watching them daily is as important to me as taking insulin would be to a diabetic. My whole day is planned around it, and if I can’t have my fix, I get shaky.
 * 5) <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">When my mother puts my clothes away. I keep them in rainbow order, ROYGBIV, and the colors can’t touch. She does her best, but the last time she completely forgot about indigo.
 * 6) <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">If someone else takes a bite of my food, I have to cut off the part that their saliva has touched before I can eat any more of it.
 * 7) <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Loose hair. It freaks me out, which is why mine is military-short.
 * 8) <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Being touched by someone I don’t know.
 * 9) <span style="color: #262626; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Foods with membranes, like custards; or foods that explode in your mouth, like peas.
 * 10) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">Even numbers.
 * 11) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">When people call me retarded, which I am not.
 * 12) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">The color orange. It means danger, and there’s no rhyme for it in English, which makes it suspicious. (Theo wants to know why I can tolerate things that are silver, then, but I won’t even rise to the argument.)

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">**__Jodi Picoult Talks About House Rules in 25 Seconds:__** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: center;">media type="youtube" key="K8tEzPdNa0I" height="315" width="420"