Book Club Meeting 4

After reading the final ten chapters of Mockingbird our book club met for its last meeting. We began our meeting by discussing how we all enjoyed the book a lot.  Personally I thought it was a great book that was in a lot of ways very relatable.  I think the author did a good job of portraying characteristics typical of people with Asperger's through Caitlin. I also think the author did a good job of showing Caitlin's father's struggle to find closure while also doing his best to still be there for Caitlin. 

We also talked about Caitlin and Michael's friendship throughout the entire book and how they unknowingly helped each other out tremendously.  Michael helped Caitlin to develop self-confidence and improve her social skills and Caitlin became like an older sister/role model to Michael.  Josh and Michael's relationship also taught Caitlin a lot about social relationships.  For example, when Josh was holding up Michael on the monkey bars she thought he was hurting him and after she yelled at Josh he became emotional and explained to her that he was just trying to help Michael and that it isn't fair to him that everyone thinks he is evil because his cousin was the shooter.  After Josh told Caitlin that it hurt his feelings that everyone thought of him that way Caitlin expressed empathy for the first time.  She was able to put herself in Josh's shoes and she comforted him. 

Caitlin also finished Devin's eagle scout project which she presented at an assembly at his middle school.  At the assembly Caitlin talked about her brother and his project and how it would help her and her father find closure which was a big deal for her because talking in front of that many people was very difficult.   

In this last part of the book Caitlin also started to make a genuine effort to make friends and work on her manners.  She told her teacher she wanted to be in a group for the group project and she also agreed to draw pictures for the yearbook when one of her classmates asked her to.  

Throughout the book Caitlin made great strides towards overcoming many of the obstacles that she faces because of Asperger's.  I really did love this book and I think it is a great book for kids to read because I think it will help them to see other people's perspectives and learn to accept others despite their differences.  Overall I liked the book club experience and I would definitely be willing to do it again.