Catherine's brother David has autism and that puts a strain on everyone in the family. It's hard for her to have friends over due to David's erratic behavior, so when the moving van pulls up next door, she dreams about having someone her age move in, someone she can really be friends with. David does understnad rules like, no toys in the fish tank, but struggles when his routine or expecations are disturbed. David goes to a clinic on the ocean (the live in Maine) where Catherine meets Jason, a disabled teen about her age. Jason is nonverbal and uses a computer to indicate what he's thinking, but it's vocabulary is limited. Catherine develops a friendship with Jason, but how far can it really go? One of the major themes of this novel is that we don't have control over some things in our lives, like who's in our family. We can only control our own reactions to life's stresses.

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