Module 5: Savvy

Book Summary: Everyone in Mibs (short for Mississippi) Beaumont's family has a "savvy" which is a term for a special gift that appears on their 13th birthdays. The gift differs from person to person, but it was handed down from Mibs' mother's side (therefore Mibs father is exempt from having a savvy). One of her brothers can make hurricanes on land and the other can manipulate electricity. Mibs is so certain that her savvy will be powerful that when her Poppa gets into an accident, she hopes her savvy can save him. When she wakes up on her thirteenth birthday, she checks on her brother's turtle (that everyone thought was dead) and sees that it is very much alive. She is convinced that her savvy can heal beings and she decides to find her way to her Poppa to help him. Her nosy neighbor, Mrs. Meeks, is taking care of the kids while Mibs' mother is away to help her father. Mrs. Meeks decides to throw a large church birthday party for Mibs birthday, but Mibs thinks this is a good opportunity to escape to find her father. She decides to hitch a ride on a bus unbeknownst to the driver. Mrs. Meeks children, Will Jr. and Bobbi, and Mibs' brothers join her on the ride. The driver, Lester Swan, is a bumbling man almost incapable of standing up for himself. Soon, Mibs finds out her real savvy: that she can hear the thoughts of people through ink on their skin, whether by pen or tattoo. 

APA Reference of Book:

Law, I. (2008). Savvy. Boston, MA: Walden Media.

Impressions: This story is told in a rambling storytelling fashion that reminded me of the rolling prairies that encompass Kansas and Nebraska or "Kansaska-Nebransas" as Mibs calls it. The voice of the narrator was especially important in the story and Ingrid Law balances telling the story without talking down to the readers. You feel as if you are in cahoots with the Beaumont family and each of the characters has a role to play in the story. Each character is relate-able in a different way, whether it is teenage Bobbi, always smacking her gum and rolling her eyes at everything. It is not until Mibs hears Bobbi's tattoos chatting, saying what Bobbi really thinks that she realizes that her savvy is not quite what she thinks. Will, Jr. takes a liking to Mibs, which she finds incredulous at first, since she had been ostracized quite a bit at school. All the Beaumont kids are homeschooled starting at the age of 13 in order for their mother to teach them the ways of controlling their savvys. I enjoyed the idea that the transition from pre-teen to teenager is marked by discovering a "savvy".  In a way, it seems like a superhero explanation for going through puberty. Whether or not kids and teens interpret this plot point this way, as an adult, I found it symbolic. At first, I thought that Mibs' savvy of hearing ink on skin talking was unusual, but it is a plot device that helps Mibs determine actually what someone is thinking. Cleverly, in the case of Lester Swan, his tattoos showcase the controlling women in his life that think he is nothing but a failure. They chitter-chat throughout the story, but Lester comes out of the story in a positive way in the end.

Professional Review: "Mibs can’t wait for her 13th birthday, when her special gift, or “savvy,” will awaken. Everyone in her family—except beloved Papa, who married in—has one, from Grandpa Bomba’s ability to move mountains (literally) to Great Aunt Jules’s time-traveling sneezes. What will hers be? Not what she wants, it turns out, but definitely what she needs when the news that a highway accident has sent her father to the ICU impels her to head for the hospital aboard a Bible salesman’s old bus. Sending her young cast on a zigzag odyssey through the “Kansaska-Nebransas” heartland, Law displays both a fertile imagination (Mibs’s savvy is telepathy, but it comes with a truly oddball caveat) and a dab hand for likable, colorful characters. There are no serious villains here, only challenges to be met, friendships to be made and some growing up to do on the road to a two-hanky climax. A film is already in development, and if it lives up to this marvel-laden debut, it’ll be well worth seeing" (Kirkus Reviews, 2008, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ingrid-law-2/savvy/)

Kirkus Reviews. (2008, April 1). [Review of the book Savvy, by I. Law] Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ingrid-law-2/savvy/

Library Uses: This book would be a good recommendation for an older elementary or younger middle school reader interested in fantasy or anything magical. I would also recommend this story for younger advanced readers. While the main character is around 13 years old, the story is told with regional dialects and interesting characters that would appeal to younger readers as well.