Josh is a bully, and Caitlin gets into an argument with him, not because his cousin killed her brother but because Josh was pushing around a little kid.
Josh, a classmate of Caitlin’s and the cousin of one of the shooters, shares the same lunch period as Caitlin. Caitlin does not entirely understand what has happened nor why her father cannot seem to stop crying. Even now, Caitlin spends time in Devon’s room, where the two used to laugh and tell stories. They often watched the movie To Kill a Mockingbird, and Devon called his little sister “Scout” after the little girl in the film. Because many of the students in her grade find her behavior and her difficulty in following conversations odd, Caitlin was closest to her brother, who protected her when other kids hurt her feelings. She prefers charcoal drawing, seeing colors as too uncontrollable. If overwhelmed emotionally, Caitlin experiences unexpected panic attacks and anxiety, sometimes manifesting in tantrum-like rages. As a result, Caitlin has difficulty making conversation, gets hung up on particular words, and is sensitive to noise and confusion (she hates recess).
Caitlin’s mother died some years earlier from cancer, and now Caitlin and her father try to cope with the shooting, which also left a second student and a teacher dead.Ĭaitlin has Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum developmental disorder. This study guide uses 2021 Puffin Books paperback edition.Ĭontent Warning: This guide contains references to gun violence (a school shooting) and ableism.Ĭaitlin Smith, a talented fifth-grade student with a gift for drawing, struggles to adjust to the death of her older brother, Devon, in a school shooting a few weeks prior-what Caitlin calls “The Day Our Life Fell Apart” (63). The novel was later awarded the 2012 Dolly Gray Children’s Literature Award, given annually by the national Council for Exceptional Children to a work that best portrays children with developmental disabilities. The novel received the prestigious National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (previous winners include Madeleine L’Engle, Beverly Cleary, and Nobelist Isaac Bashevis Singer). With the help of a new friend, the young son of a teacher killed in the shooting, Caitlin emerges ready to engage with a world that she has for most of her young life worked to stay safely apart from. Informed by Harper Lee’s iconic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the novel is as much about Caitlin’s struggles as it is about how a community comes together in the wake of violence directed against innocent children.
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