My Brother Charlie

My Brother Charlie

Author: Holly Robinson Peete

Illustration: Ryan Elizabeth Peete

Book Dealing with Special need topics

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Grade Level: K to 5^th grade

“I wish I could crawl inside Charlie’s world to move things around for him and for me.”

Callie & Charlie, the twins are born into a wonderful family. From the start, Charlie seems a lot different than his sister. Callie is playful, runs, says ‘I love you’ to her mother. But Charlie seems distance and barely speaks a word. Everyone tells the mother that Charlie is just being a typical boy and that he is fine. But his mother knows that something is definitely not right with Charlie. She goes to the doctor to check on Charlie. The doctor diagnoses Charlie with autism and tells the mother that he will never be able to say “I love you” to her. This makes her upset but also determine that she is not going to give up on him. But the story is really about how Callie feels towards her brother. She understands Charlie is different but fails to understand why. She comments that he is in his own world doing his thing and that makes her feel jealous because she cannot play with him. But she also understands that Charlie too would have loved to make friends and play with just like she does. She notices how talented he is when it comes to playing music and how interesting he finds on things like paperclip, apples, and shoelaces that she barely gives time to. And whenever Callie gets hurt, she knows that Charlie is always there to look after her. Though he does not say it in words, Callie knows he loves her. One day when Callie bangs her toe. She cries in pain. Charlie rushes to her to calm her down and utter the words “I love you.” This is the first time Charlie has ever said those words to anyone. This makes Callie forgot about her pain and gives him a huge hug. Though they are twins, they are different and both have their own way of showing affection. But at the end of the day, both of them know how much love they have for each other.

Thought:

Ah, such a lovely book. I do not have siblings that have autism, but I have a nephew who is mildly autistic. And it is funny how Charlie reminded so much of him. Sometimes I wish what is going through his head because it is true. They see things differently. They do things differently. It’s fascinating. The illustrations on this book are amazing. The illustrations are not realistic but there are so many emotions conveyed through eyes of the characters. The pages are all filled with illustration with text accompanying it on the side. Some of the pages have long sentence while some only has words which is great for young readers. They will like this book to read and to analyze the illustrations. I can use this book to teach students that there are people out there that are different and that we should all be mindful of it. I can also use this book to ask them to reflect on their journal after they read the book! Excellent book!