Rain Reign

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I just got through reading this book by Ann M Martin. This had to be the third autism book she wrote but this time it was with a character with high functioning autism or Asperger's than about someone who is at the severe end of the spectrum and non verbal. Did anyone read this book yet?


My thoughts below, may contain spoilers so don't read below if you don't want the story ruined










I could relate to Rose and the way she thought is similar to me and she is logical too but though she has more traits than me like above normal hearing and getting overwhelmed in a store because of lot of people and I never got that upset when rules would get broken or if someone did a grammatically incorrect error. But she had an aide but I didn't get one until half way in 6th grade and she always left the room whenever she got upset like how I always went to the resource room whenever I got too upset and she didn't seemed to get bullied at school except for on the bus and whenever she wanted to do something and didn't know how, she would ask someone just like I would too like she did about how to look for a lost dog or how to find the dog's owners. Also I remember being in junior high and thse kids from high school would come in and we would do some work together, volunteer work for the teachers or little kids, and then I found out it was like a buddy system and it was to help me work on social skills and in the book Rose had a buddy system and each two kids would take turns sitting with her at lunch to also work on her social skills. But I didn't really like her father but I liked her uncle and he was more understanding and accepting of her and I was surprised when her dad decided to abandon her by dropping her off at his brother's and then taking off and she never sees him again but I thought she was better off with her uncle and perhaps her dad thought so too so he took her there and dropped her off and left and never saw her again. I also thought he should have been proud of what she did about her decision to do with her dog she named Rain but no he had to be upset and he decides to abandon her. But I honestly didn't think she was too badly affected by her condition and it seemed mild, she could take care of herself and stop her stimming when told to and stop talking about her obsession when told so, same as when she would point out about a stranger breaking a rule, and she could read some body language I thought and she used logic to read between the lines I thought but I have read some reviews and some people have a different perspective than I do about the character, they thought she was worse off or something and I couldn't see it when I read the book. I also thought she did fine with change when told to do something unexpectedly like when she was told to help her father with something and it was a stray dog he brought home and he gave it to her as a gift and the time he woke her up in the middle of the night just to take her to her uncle's and she didn't flip out but she still had routines. I really liked the book and I felt it wasn't stereotyped.

I got this book on my kindle for Christmas and really liked it. I thought Rose was sweet, and would like to have a friend like her. It made me sad when people ignored her homonyms or told her to stop going on about them; it reminded me of when people do that to me; they always lose interest in hearing about my dinosaurs or Star Trek before I've even got to the most interesting parts. I wish I could have had an aid like hers when I was in school, it would have helped my coping and organisational skills a lot.

What other books has Ann Martin written? I'd like to take a look at them. If you liked Rose, there's a book I'd recommend called Livvie Owen Lived Here, by Sarah Dooley; the girl in it, Livvie, is on the lower functioning end of Asperger's. Her family has to move a lot because neighbours always complain about her meltdowns and other problematic behaviour, and the story is about her trying to get her family back to the house they lived in when she was very young. I really liked it, Livvie reminded me a lot of Rose, though I think Rose was higher functioning.

Inside Out

Kristy and the Secret of Susan baby Sitters Club book #32.


I would have to look into the other book you recommended.

I thought Rose's father couldn't handle her even though there was barely anything about her that was hard. He was gone a lot and she took care of herself and did things for herself including making him dinner. He was asked by her teacher if she has "tantrums" at home and he said no and I thought "of course not, there is no one there to cause them" and he didn't seem to give a darn about her and he acted like she had no diagnoses. I think he hung out at the pub just to avoid her so he wouldn't have to deal with her. It was like she barely had a father. She didn't seem to be too much work like he made it out to be. I do wonder though why he lost his job and I assumed he moved because he couldn't find a job again and he was about to lose his house so he left but left his daughter behind at his brother's and it worked out well. I wonder what Summertime Academy was, was it a special school or just some place for kids with high functioning autism to hang out and socialize and be together. Only Ann M Martin would know.

But I did find her homonyms distracting when I read the book so I would skip them when I would read the sentences. It made it harder for me to follow what I was reading with all these words in parenthesis so I had to skip those and go back to them.

I checked out the book on Barnes & Noble website and read the first part they had shown and it looked good. Kind of hard to follow and she seemed to have signs of OCD. Liked the cups organized and had to do it or she can't be calm. Then she hard the whistle blow which no one could hear so she assumed she was crazy since she called it imaginary at the end and she did have echolalia and then I could tell she was calm when she referred to her parents as Mom and Dad instead of Karen and Simon. I may have saw the book at the store but didn't even bother picking up the copy to read it. The book cover looked familiar. I will look for it next time I am there but I want to read The Rosie Effect they have out on display on their table there. I did save Livvie Owen Lived Here to my Nook for sample. I wonder how she burned down their house. Hopefully it was an accident and I wonder how old she was then.

I read the beginning of The Rosie Effect online as a sample before the book was released; I initially read The Rosie Project and liked it, so hopefully this one will be good too. I really like Don, but it frustrates me that they never come out and identify his Asperger's in the first book. Given Don's need to research everything in minute detail, I think his knowing what he has will go a long way towards helping him with the aspects of his life that he still finds challenging. In the little bit I read, I was bothered by Rosie in the second book; she seemed to have turned Don's life upsidown; she threw out almost all of his routines and put her own rules in place without so much as a compromise, and then she disregarded how Don might feel when she gave him some very big news that is going to have a huge impact on his life.

Regarding Rain Reign, I didn't like Rose's father either. I thought he did right by her when he sent her to live with her uncle. Apart from finding her Rain, it was the only really good thing he did for her. I was curious as to how a father like that wound up getting his child a proper diagnosis anyway; the school could have pushed for it, but if he didn't want Rose to get diagnosed, or couldn't be bothered to do it, he would be the one with the final say. It was nice that he recognised at least some of the things she had problems with, like when she wouldn't watch the TV because the visual chaos of the news report was overwhelming, he asked if she didn't like what she saw or if she was just confused, so there were one or two instances that showed that he wasn't completely the worst father ever, but overall, I didn't like him.

I think I've read the amazon sample for the Babysitters' Club book you referenced; I should see if it's available at my library.

The school could have diagnosed her and he didn't knowledge it and he just ignored it. It was like he never wanted to be a father and his brother had to be the father to his daughter. My school has given me several diagnoses including ADD I think and they thought it was what the problem was.