Miyuki: Realistic fiction “My Brother Charlie ”

I chose the book named “My Brother Charlie ” by Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete, and pictures by Shane W.Evans.

Charlie and Callie are twins so they prefer the same things, but Callie noticed that her brother behaves different from her, such as she is a girl, looks at the moon, wants to play, always says I love you and can kiss her mother, and he hates math and playing, and cannot tell I love you or to give a kiss to his mother. He was identified as autistic, and Callie starts to understand and allies for her brother because she learned from him that he is really smart.

The genre is realistic fiction. This book’s theme is family’s relationship related to autism and understanding about someone with autism. This book is good quality because children can understand about disabilities such as autism. In addition, this book shows how a family solves their issue by bringing Charlie to the doctor, and in this book there are vivid and realistic images to help keep the story interesting and teach children about autism.

This book really lets me remember my old classmates in Japan, so I unpack my mind about them. It helps us to think about people and not see them as stereotypes.

In my classroom, I will ask students if they have the same experience with disabilities such as someone with autism. In addition, I will let students explore how to understand about autism or other disabilities, then discuss how to help friends or family with autism. After their discussion, children will develop their own awareness about autism. Lastly, students will discuss about their culture or tradition’s view of disabilities and what they found. It is important that children will develop and think over about family and friends with disabilities.

I noticed that this author wants to expose issues of social injustice because this book shows Callie do not like her brother because of his more odd behavior than her. It will teach students to not act mean to students with disabilities. This book will teach students respect for others because people should respect each other even when they have disabilities or abilities, and to not bully and hurt. In addition, the book emphasizes self-love and knowledge because in this book Callie noticed that her brother behaves in different ways on one day from another and is identified as autistic and she accepts him for having autism too. It will teach students about autism and that it is natural behavior and not strange.

Ages 4-7