59 pages • 1 hour read
Ann M. MartinRain Reign
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter 45-Author’s NoteChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 45 Summary: “The Quiet House”
Time passes, and winter turns to early spring. Rose tries to cope with Rain being gone, spending her time out of school alone at her house while Wesley is gone, supposedly out looking for work. Rose is lonely and sad without the companionship Rain used to provide.
Chapter 46 Summary: “My Father Has an Argument With His Brother”
More time passes. When he drops Rose off after school one day, Weldon suggests to Wesley that Rose might like to have another dog to keep her company, especially since Wesley is gone so much. Wesley angrily says that Rose doesn’t deserve another dog since she gave away the one he had gotten for her. Weldon uneasily leaves, knowing that Wesley doesn’t like his “interference” in bringing up Rose.
Chapter 47 Summary: “In the Middle of the Night”
Late one night, Wesley abruptly wakes up Rose and tells her that he’s taking her to Weldon’s house. The way that he tells her makes Rose thinks that she’ll be with her uncle for a while, so she hurriedly packs some of her belongings. When she gets into her father’s truck, it seems that he’s packed some of his own things as well. At Weldon’s, Wesley leaves before Weldon knows Rose has arrived to stay with him.
Chapter 48 Summary: “What Happened to My Mother”
Several weeks after her father leaves, Rose sits out on Weldon’s front porch with her uncle, just as she used to sit on the front porch of her own house with Rain. As they converse, Rose asks Weldon about her mother, and Weldon reveals that her mother died suddenly of a heart aneurysm when Rose was a toddler. Weldon says that Wesley must have told Rose that her mother left in a misguided attempt to avoid hurting her, although the lie made Rose think that her mother might have left because of her autism. Weldon attributes Wesley leaving Rose with him as a recognition that Weldon would be a better parental figure for Rose than he himself would be.
Chapter 49 Summary: “Hud Road”
When the school year ends, Weldon enrolls Rose in a summer program for children with high-functioning autism. They haven’t heard from Wesley, and Rose’s old house is being foreclosed. Rose has continued her friendship with Parvani, who has begun keeping her own list of homonyms. Weldon and Rose decide to go to the animal shelter soon and look for another dog.
Author’s Note Summary
In an Author’s Note following the novel’s conclusion, Martin writes that the story was inspired by the real-life Hurricane Irene in 2011. The storm made an unexpected inland turn and affected Martin’s town in upstate New York, and she walked around observing the storm damage with her own dog. She began thinking about pets that become separated from their owners during such storms and was inspired with the idea for Rose’s character through one of her friends who works with students who have autism.
Chapter 45-Author’s Note Analysis
The book’s plotlines resolve during this final section. Rose’s seemingly permanent move to live with Weldon reveals or facilitates several crucial stages of Rose’s emotional story arc. First, Wesley seems to believe that he is unable to parent or connect with Rose as he wishes to and recognizes her emotional connection to Weldon. Martin has consistently portrayed Weldon as the person to whom Rose feel closest and as being able to effectively connect and communicate with her. Wesley’s ability to recognize this and do what he thinks is best for Rose—even if it means abandoning the pride that has driven him through so much of the book—is a sign of his own emotional maturation, a process that Rose also undergoes.
Second, Wesley’s departure gives Rose the chance to ask her uncle about her mother, who she believes left her and Wesley when she was a toddler. Weldon reveals that Rose’s mother died. This revelation completely shifts Rose’s understanding of her mother and of herself, giving her more self-acceptance and increasing her self-esteem. Rose has been worried throughout the book that her mother rejected her and her identity as a person with autism. The revelation that her mother died does not change the fact of her mother’s absence throughout her life, but it does have profound implications for Rose as she moves to the end of the story.
Martin’s Author’s Note provides context for the plot. Martin provides specificity to the background of the novel, discussing an actual storm (Hurricane Irene in 2011) and an actual place: upstate New York, which seems to match the setting of Rain Reign. Martin also mentions the inspiration of the work of one of her friends who works with students who have autism. Because the book deals with a sensitive topic—a developmental disability—the reference to Martin’s familiarity with the topic gives her increased credibility.
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