Mockingbird

Widely praised by readers, educators, and parents’ groups alike, Kathryn Erskine’s young adult novel Mockingbird (2010) explores the emotional and psychological growth of Caitlin Smith, a precocious 10-year-old girl with Asperger’s syndrome who struggles to understand the implications of the recent death of her older brother in a school shooting. Caitlin is the novel’s first-person narrator, and the novel gained recognition for its sensitive portrayal of the minds of those on the autism spectrum  as Caitlin comes to terms with her world, brutally shattered by violence, through her fascination with drawing and her love of words.

Informed by Harper Lee’s iconic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the novel is as much about Caitlin’s struggles as it is about how a community comes together in the wake of violence directed against innocent children. With the help of a new friend, the young son of a teacher killed in the shooting, Caitlin emerges ready to engage with a world that she has for most of her young life worked to stay safely apart from. The novel received the prestigious National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (previous winners include Madeleine L’Engle, Beverly Cleary, and Nobelist Isaac Bashevis Singer). The novel was later awarded the 2012 Dolly Gray Children’s Literature Award, given annually by the national Council for Exceptional Children to a work that best portrays children with developmental disabilities.

This study guide uses 2021 Puffin Books paperback edition.

Content Warning: This guide contains references to gun violence (a school shooting) and ableism.

Plot Summary

Caitlin Smith, a talented fifth-grade student with a gift for drawing, struggles to adjust to the death of her older brother, Devon, in a school shooting a few weeks prior—what Caitlin calls “The Day Our Life Fell Apart” (63). The town is reeling from the tragedy. Caitlin’s mother died some years earlier from cancer, and now Caitlin and her father try to cope with the shooting, which also left a second student and a teacher dead.

Caitlin has Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum developmental disorder. As a result, Caitlin has difficulty making conversation, gets hung up on particular words, and is sensitive to noise and confusion (she hates recess). She is protective of her personal space. If overwhelmed emotionally, Caitlin experiences unexpected panic attacks and anxiety, sometimes manifesting in tantrum-like rages. Her outlet is her drawing. She prefers charcoal drawing, seeing colors as too uncontrollable. Because many of the students in her grade find her behavior and her difficulty in following conversations odd, Caitlin was closest to her brother, who protected her when other kids hurt her feelings. They often watched the movie To Kill a Mockingbird, and Devon called his little sister “Scout” after the little girl in the film. Even now, Caitlin spends time in Devon’s room, where the two used to laugh and tell stories. Caitlin does not entirely understand what has happened nor why her father cannot seem to stop crying.

Josh, a classmate of Caitlin’s and the cousin of one of the shooters, shares the same lunch period as Caitlin. Josh is a bully, and Caitlin gets into an argument with him, not because his cousin killed her brother but because Josh was pushing around a little kid. Concerned about how Caitlin is handling her brother’s death, her guidance counselor arranges for Caitlin to have lunch recess with the younger grades, hoping those kids might be kinder to her.

Her counselor encourages Caitlin to practice “empathy”—a new word and a new concept for her. She looks it up and learns it means to think about others first.

At recess, Caitlin meets a first grader named Michael who sits by himself and seems sad. They begin to talk. She finds out later that Michael’s mother was the teacher killed in the shooting. Remembering what the guidance counselor told her, Caitlin makes Michael her new friend.

At home, Caitlin’s father remains depressed and inconsolable. As they watch television one night, a broadcast about the upcoming trial of the surviving shooter mentions how important it is for the tiny community to have “closure,” which it says will bring the survivors peace of mind. Caitlin is intrigued; she does not know what the word means exactly but believes she and her dad need it.

Caitlin knows that at the time of her brother’s death he and her father were working to complete Devon’s Eagle Scout project, an ambitious woodworking project that involved constructing an elegant mission  cabinet from scratch. Caitlin decides that she and her father completing the dresser might bring closure to them both. Her father wants nothing to do with the idea at first, but Caitlin persists. She begins the project alone, but the intricate woodworking that she does not quite understand leaves her hands splintered and bloody. Her father then joins her. The two work together and complete the cabinet.

When the community gathers for a memorial service for the victims of the shooting, Caitlin and her father present the school with the completed chest to be part of the school’s permanent memorial. Caitlin feels the profound compassion the townspeople show for the families who lost loved ones. At the end of the service, the school’s art teacher, who has seen potential in Caitlin’s charcoal drawings, presents her with a sketchbook and a big box of crayons. Caitlin has never drawn in color, but now she prepares to do so.