Alison Rules

Title - Alison Rules
Author - Catherine Clark
ISBN - 0060559810
Publication Date - 2004

Plot -Alison has blossomed into a beautiful woman.  She has smarts, good looks and good friends.  Yet she has a bunch of rules that she has set up for herself, including not using her locker as that is a place of primarily bad news.  Why has Alison set up all of these rules?  She does not reveal this to the reader's right away.  Instead she keeps living her life trying to stick to all of these rules because they seem to be her guard that keeps her balanced.  What we end up finding out is that it is as a result of the death of her mother that she has put all of these rules together.  All of the boundaries were meant to protect her from the outside world. 

Eventually she would end up putting barriers between her and her best friend Laurie, because they end up liking the same guy.  And there is no way to deal with that.  They end up having a fight over it.  And Alison tries to patch things together by refusing the boy they both like.  She makes things worse, and Laurie and Alison try to come to some resolution about it, but fate intercedes one more time, and Laurie is taken away, never giving Alison the chance to fully reconcile with her friend. 

The last portion of the novel is Alison trying to let go of all of the pain of everything.  She knows that she needs to release the pain of her mom's death, as she needs to release the pain of her friends death. She knows that she has to crawl out of that shell, and that there are no amount of rules that can protect her from doing that.  And eventually she knows she will have to connect with the boy that she likes, because she can no longer live her life in fear of violating any rules.  The rules do not always protect  you.  Sometimes they just keep life out.

Critical Review - Catherine Clark weaves an interesting, somewhat disjointed tale of Alison, the girl who is trying desperately to protect herself from what is going on around her.  The story is somewhat disjointed as the protagonist herself.  We do not know the motivation for everything that Alison does.  As a result we are unclear about what to make of the complex character that is Alison.  Eventually we get the understanding that she is trying to keep life out, and protect her own little world that she has set up.  But the moment that Laurie leaves, before she ends up dying by jumping into the river, we know that Alison is desperately alone inside with the walls that seem more like a tomb.  Clark does a good job of not making transformation immediate and gives Alison a chance to grieve, not only for her lost friend, but for her lost mother as well. 

Reader's Annotation - A day in the life of Alison consists of spending time with her friend Laurie, avoiding her locker, and keeping her feelings to herself.  There are separate rules for each of these things.  Is someone going to help Alison Break them?

About the Author - Catherine Clark, originally from Massachusetts, now calls Minnesota her home.  Currently working as a bookseller in St. Paul, she spends much of her time following a variety of pursuits.  These include teaching and running.  Her first couple of novels had semi-autobiographical moments in them, including riding to bus as a teenager because her parents insisted.

Genre - Chic Lit, Drama

Curriculum Ties - Discuss why the rules fail to protect Alison in the end. How does the novel follow the format for setting, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.  Discuss whether there is a satisfactory resolution to Alison Rules or is it somewhat unresolved. - Literature

Booktalking Ideas - Discuss the nature of the Rules that are developed by Alison?  Discuss whether rules protect or harm people in the end.  Why/Why not?

Reading Level/Interest Age - Grade 9+

Challenge Issues - None

Why included - Another opportunity to explore the chic lit genre, although I would not entirely classify this as chic lit as its themes are darker and consist of much less gossip and innuendo that the others in the genre might.