Rose is an autistic child, her mother left when she was two,
and her father, a man of a few words drinks too much. He can’t (or won’t) understand autism
either. But one night he brings her a
gift – a dog – and Rose’s world is turned upside down for a while.
Rose calls the dog Rain because she arrived on a rainy day, and she changes the life of this child. But when she finds out that her father didn't get her from the dog pound, or from an animal rescue centre, she decides that Rain has another family out there somewhere. A family whose hearts are broken because their beloved dog has gone; just as Rose's heart will break if she finds the family - because she will have to give Rain up. Fortunately she is helped in the task by a lovely uncle, who really is more of a father than her own has ever been. The reason for this is made clear, but not until very near the end of the book, and there are a lot of smiles and a lot of tears for us us before we get there. There are certainly more books about autistic boys than girls, but we need to know about girls too - what makes them tick; what their coping mechanisms are. Also how others cope. For Rose can lose her temper, and when she does, instead of swearing she shouts prime numbers, one after the other, and this is not only disconcerting, but at school very disruptive..... "would you care to step into the corridor for a while, Rose?" Wonderful.
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