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  • I really enjoyed this book although it was really sad at times. It's about a girl who's mother dies on 9/11 and the grieving process she goes through as well as the effect it has on her family. There are also some really well crafted characters. I mostly enjoyed the fact that the auther really made ... Continue

    I really enjoyed this book although it was really sad at times. It's about a girl who's mother dies on 9/11 and the grieving process she goes through as well as the effect it has on her family. There are also some really well crafted characters. I mostly enjoyed the fact that the auther really made the emotions seem authentic.

    

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• ― Icedream said on Jun 27, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • I enjoyed reading this book, however, it wasn't a book that I couldn't put down. It was good enough to finish, but not good enough to rave about. I really like the message it sent of survival even after you have faced some huge challenges. Discussion Questions1. Where were you and what were you doin ... Continue

    I enjoyed reading this book, however, it wasn't a book that I couldn't put down. It was good enough to finish, but not good enough to rave about. I really like the message it sent of survival even after you have faced some huge challenges. Discussion Questions1. Where were you and what were you doing when the planes hit the World Trade Center?2. Do you know anyone whos directly impacted by the terrorist attacks?3. Why is the title The Usual Rules?Quotesp.255 "It's understandable that your brother would be having a rough time, Alan said. And you, too. Who's to say what normal behavior is in a situation like that? The usual rules don't apply."~Two things about this quote, first I think it gives meaning to the title and makes the reader think about what and why "the usual rules" exist. Secondly, throughout this book when someone is talking no quotation marks are used. Why would the author choose to do this way, hmmmm. I'm not really sure and think that might be another good discussion point.p.310 "How can it be, Wendy asked Alan, that you'll be reading this story that's so sad, it almost h urts to look at the words on the page? What happens to the character practically tears your stomach out--and then the book is over. And the first thing you want to do is find another book like that.Sometimes it's almost a good feeling, hurting that way, he said. That's what the blues is all about."~I think this quote says so much about reading in general, sad or happy.

    

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• ― SheReads said on Mar 5, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

The Usual Rules follows the story of Wendy, who lives with her mother, stepfather, and little brother in Brooklyn. Her world is transformed in a single terrible instant, one day in September 2001: Her mother goes to work that morn-ing. She doesn't come back. Through the eyes of the thirteen-year-old, readers follow Wendy's slow and terrible realization that her mother has died, and the family's struggle to move forward with their lives. Wendy's real father comes to take her back with him to California, where she is launched into an utterly unfamiliar life populated with an unlikely cast of characters-her father's cactus-growing girlfriend; a TV-watching teenager with a baby and not much else; a sad and tender bookstore owner, who introduces her to the voice of Anne Frank and to his autistic son; and a homeless teenager, on a mission to find his long--lost brother. At the core of Wendy's story is her deep connection with and protective loyalty to her little brother Louie, back in New York, who is grieving the loss of his mother without her. Set against the backdrop of a global and personal tragedy, and written in a style that is alternately wry and heartbreaking, The Usual Rules is an unexpectedly hopeful story of healing and forgiveness that will offer readers, young and old alike, a picture of how-out of the rubble-a family rebuilds its life.

• Book Club ChoiceSeptember 11CaliforniaterrorismNew York CitydeathrelationshipsYALSA BBYA 2004realistic fictionfiction
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