Playing by the Rules: A Story about Autism (review)

"Josh kind of has his own rules," says narrator Jody about her brother, and while Jody knows those rules cold, their visiting Great Aunt Tilda is new to Josh's complicated world. Jody therefore offers Aunt Tilda guidance as they try to play a board game together despite Josh's interruptions; at the end of the game, Jody's the gleeful winner, Josh has gotten more comfortable with Aunt Tilda, and the kids are both happily buzzed to the sky on illicit soda that they wangled from Tilda. The text has rare verve for an issue book (in fact, autism is only explicitly mentioned in the title), with Jody a credible blend of happily self-important expert on her brother and jealous sibling annoyed at his intrusions. The information about Josh's "rules" is kid-level understandable as well as capably interwoven; it's a particularly nice touch that Jody parallels her liking her crayons to be in order with Josh's insistence on his toy animals remaining in their proper places, thus giving the audience an easy point of shared reference. Unfortunately, the book's design and layout are stodgy and amateurish, and the illustrations are stiffly cartoonish, lacking the text's creative energy. Nonetheless, kids with their own offbeat siblings will appreciate this recognition of their importance and those figuring out a new classmate with perplexing differences may find this a helpful window into a working relationship.