The art teacher there gives Caitlin a box of pastels. They go together to the dedication ceremony for the people killed in the shooting. With the help of a school counselor and art teacher, although Caitlin is initially antagonistic, she is able to help her father, as well as Michael and the school bully, Josh, the shooter's cousin, to cope.Įventually, Caitlin, Michael, and Josh become friends, more or less. Caitlin thinks that if she and her father complete the box, it will bring them closure. She finds it in the form of Devon's Eagle Scout box which has remained incomplete since his death. When she talks to her counselor about it, she tells Caitlin that he is the son of the teacher who was shot and killed in the shooting.Ĭaitlin discovers the words 'empathy' and 'closure' and determines that this is what she and her distraught father need. She meets a boy named Michael, who is strangely sad over his mother. Her counselor arranges for her to spend recess with the younger kids. Her classmates don't want to be friends with her due to her strange behavior. She likes to hide from the rest of the world under the dresser belonging to Devon. She is awkward and pedantic, seeing things in black and white, and referring to her deceased brother as 'Devon who is dead' when talking to her father.Ĭaitlin's behaviors are perceived as 'weird'. Due to Caitlin's condition, she finds it difficult to cope with her feelings about what has happened.

Her older brother Devon has just been killed, along with a teacher and another student, in a tragic school shooting. The book centers around the girl whose brother was killed in a school shooting.ġ0-year-old Caitlin Smith has Asperger’s syndrome and is preoccupied with drawing and dictionaries. In 2012 it was awarded the Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award. National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Mockingbird is a young adult novel by American author Kathryn Erskine about a girl with Asperger's syndrome coping with the loss of her brother.

Mockingbird book caitlin