The Truth About Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor
The Hook:
A cloud of sadness surrounds Mason who has autism. Since the death of his mom he has lived with his grandma and Uncle Drum who both suffer from depression. There is also a girl named Shayleen that has moved in with them. She is a runaway teenager that Uncle Drum is helping by letting her stay at the house. Shayleen has a problem with buying too much stuff off the internet.
The absolute worst is his best friend Benny died after falling off a ladder climbing up to a treehouse in their apple orchard. Adding to that, Lieutenant Baird won’t believe the story Mason has told about the day Benny died. The lieutenant thinks somehow Mason had something to do with it knowingly or unknowingly.
Because of his disabilities and size (he is the biggest and sweatiest boy in school), Mason is bullied by several boys, Matt his neighbor being one of them. Sometimes Mason takes care of Matt’s dog, Moonie when the family goes out of town. Moonie seems to prefer Mason over Matt who sometimes beats the dog. Matt’s mom is a sympathetic character to Mason. She is always very kind to Mason and is very embarrassed by the way Matt treats him (and sometimes her too).
The only solace Mason has at school is the social worker’s room (called SWOOF) where he is able to “write” his thoughts and feelings using a voice to text technology device called the Dragon.
A bright spot enters Mason’s life when a new friend, Calvin moves to the neighborhood. Together they make a hideout in an old root cellar. But when Calvin goes missing, Mason is AGAIN the suspect. Mason is desperate to figure out what happened to Calvin and to clear his name with having anything to do with his disappearance, likewise with Benny’s death. But will anyone believe him?
This book is in our library. It is also in Axis 360 as an ebook as well as an audio book. It is 8 AR points.
My Thoughts (Careful! There Could Be Spoilers):
This book was really good but it was rather slow at times due to lots of character development. The character development is excellent but the slow pace may be a negative for some our students.
I love that this book highlighted autism. It also described a disability—or should I say ability—of Mason’s that I had never heard of, synaesthesia which means the person can see colors when they experience a certain feeling. This was particularly interesting I thought. I researched synaesthesia a little more and I learned that 4.4% of our population has synaesthesia. It can be linked to autism but not all the time. Some people hear musical notes and see colors. Super cool!
The police officer assumed Mason had something to do with Benny’s death because he didn’t believe Mason’s story of how it happened. I also think the police officer, along with others in the town, viewed his family as rather strange. They kept to themselves because of their depression and they had the runaway girl living with them which does sound rather odd but was very innocent. They were just trying to help her out and give her a place to live.
Mason was big kid, trying to navigate the world around him with little support from his grandma and Uncle—kind of a lost soul. The bullying he received from Matt was sadly typical for loners such as he. His new friend Caleb was a joy because he viewed Mason as the nice kid that he was and befriended him. He had simply gotten stuck in an underground hideaway they had found and was later rescued.
Mason, in the end, was pronounced innocent of all crimes so it had a happy ending with a little twist in the end of the real culprit. (I won’t give it away). I give this book 3.8 stars.
Recommendations:
This book is for strong readers that don’t mind a slow novel with lots of character development. I loved seeing things through Mason’s eyes and through his (dis)ability. The author did a wonderful job and helps us learn about others through their perspective. I would suggest this one for 6th graders-adult.
