By Ann M. Martin
An autistic girl who loves rules and homonyms loses her dog in a storm, and finding him means doing the hardest right thing.
Rose loves homonyms, prime numbers, and rules, in a small town with her short-tempered father, who once brought home a stray she named Rain. When a huge storm hits and Rain goes missing, Rose works the phones like the careful, methodical girl she is, calling every shelter. She does find Rain. And then she learns Rain had a family before her, and has to decide what the rules of doing right actually require.
Rose is one of the most fully drawn autistic narrators in middle grade, and a child comes to understand how she thinks not by being told about autism but by living a whole book inside her logic. It's the deepest book on this shelf for a child who's ready to feel something real. The dog gives them a reason to keep turning pages; Rose gives them a mind they won't forget.