Fragile Bones by Lorna Schultz Nicholson

The other is a graduating senior with the world at her feet. The meaning of 'appropriate behaviour' mystifies him: he doesn't understand most people and they certainly don't understand him. Her school work and future is priority therefore she is perceived to be no fun, unlike any other teenager.One is a fifteen-year-old boy with an uncanny ability to recite every bone in the skeletal system whenever he gets anxious - and that happens a lot. On multiple occasions in the book, Anna’s best friend wants her to go to a party but Anna won’t go due to school work and the Best Buddies Program. She knows exactly what she wants to do with her life and most people her age are still trying to figure who they are and what they stand for, so not a lot of people can relate to her personality. Having perfect grades is not so common which puts Anna in a different place and position to the majority of people in her school. That makes it especially tough for him to make friends and be a part of what is supposedly ‘cool and normal’. At his school he is labeled before he even gets there, because he has autism. Harrison cannot comprehend social cues and his behaviour is not considered ‘normal’. People who don’t have autism have a hard time understanding people who do have autism because there minds work so differently, therefore autistic people are marginalized. Harrison is especially different to everyone due to the fact that he has autism and Anna is an outsider because she has a type A personality (perfect grades etc.).Īutism is becoming progressively more common but the vast majority of our population is not autistic. ThemeĪs I read the book, the theme of being an outsider particularly stood out to me. At the start of the book, her sole reason to be in the program is to build her resume but, she develops and unlikely friendship with Harrison as the book goes on. She joins the Best Buddies Program at her school and is joined up with a boy who has autism, Harrison. He doesn’t however, have the ability to understand appropriate behaviour and social cues.Īnna is a graduating senior with near perfect grades. Harrison is an autistic fifteen-year-old boy, who has the ability to recite every bone in the human body, which he does whenever he gets nervous.

Fragile Bones, by Lorna Schultz Nicholson explores the lives of two very different characters named Harrison and Anna.

Fragile Bones by Lorna Schultz Nicholson