"Savvy" by Ingrid Law
(Dial Books for Young Readers, ISBN 9780803733060, $16.99)
Two days before
Mississippi "Mibs" Beaumont turns thirteen, her father is critically injured
in a car accident and left comatose in Salina Hope Hospital. Coming of age
in Mibs’ family is special, though—her mom’s side of the family all have
"savvies," superpowers of sorts ranging from doing everything perfectly (her
mother) to her brother Rocket’s command of electricity (he burns out light
bulbs when he’s upset but is the only one who can jump-start their ancient
station wagon) to her Grandpa Bomba’s ability to make new land, like the
strip of "Kansaska-Nebransas" where the family lives. So when, on the
morning of her birthday, Mibs’ brother’s dead pet turtle seems to wake up at
her approach, she’s sure she’s been blessed with a savvy that can save her
dad. With her brothers Fish and Sampson and the preacher’s kids Bobbi and
Will Jr., she stows away in a pink Bible-salesman’s bus and sets off to get
to Salina and Poppa. But when tattoos start telling her people’s innermost
thoughts, Mibs starts to worry that she won’t be able to help after all.
There’s nothing I
didn’t love about this book. Like the best fantasy storytellers, Law
immediately creates a world where the wildest things seem perfectly normal.
And her language is delicious, full of alliteration, repetition, and
inventive similes. Just listen to these sentences from the very first page:
"I had liked living down south on the edge of land, next to the
pushing-pulling waves. I had liked it with a mighty kind of liking, so
moving had been hard—hard like the pavement the first time I fell off my
pink two-wheeler and my palms burned like fire from all of the hurt just
under the skin." Not to mention my favorite new vocabulary word "scumble," a
painting term the Beaumonts use to describe learning to control their
talents in public. Savvy goes
far beyond the standard "it’s hard to be different" young-adult tale to a
strong-voiced, delightful novel that anyone who appreciates eccentricity
will enjoy.
Review by
Anna
Perleberg, May 9, 2008
Back
to Reviews
