MMGM: Roll With It

 

When I read the premise for Roll With It, I knew had to read it. A girl with cerebral palsy wants to be a baker! I love baking, and I’m always excited to see a book about a kid with a disability where the story is not just about the disability.

This book has a lot of plots and subplots, and they all come together for a heartwarming story about finding your tribe.

Synopsis from Amazon:

Ellie’s a girl who tells it like it is. That surprises some people, who see a kid in a wheelchair and think she’s going to be all sunshine and cuddles. The thing is, Ellie has big dreams: She might be eating Stouffer’s for dinner, but one day she’s going to be a professional baker. If she’s not writing fan letters to her favorite celebrity chefs, she’s practicing recipes on her well-meaning, if overworked, mother.

But when Ellie and her mom move so they can help take care of her ailing grandpa, Ellie has to start all over again in a new town at a new school. Except she’s not just the new kid—she’s the new kid in the wheelchair who lives in the trailer park on the wrong side of town. It all feels like one challenge too many, until Ellie starts to make her first-ever friends. Now she just has to convince her mom that this town might just be the best thing that ever happened to them!

What I loved:

1. A relatable main character: Ellie is a different kind of character with a disability. She treats her limitations in a practical way without letting them totally flatten her. While sometimes her sarcasm grated on me a bit, she showed a welcome range of emotion, and the story didn’t pivot on her teaching other people a lesson, but having her learn one herself.

2. Memaw! I’m not sure if I’ve enjoyed a MG grandma I loved as much as Ellie’s Memaw. Her faith was real and not saccharine. She wasn’t afraid to tell Ellie’s Mom the truth, and she always had Ellie’s back. Loved her!

3. Fun sidekick characters: I really enjoyed how Ellie found her people with Coralee, a pageant contestant and aspiring singer, who tells it like it is (not unlike Memaw) and Bert, who has autism. The scenes with the three of them together were so much fun, especially the miniature golf scene. Coralee wasn’t afraid to tell Ellie the truth, even risking their friendship, which is the sign of a good friend.

4. Letters to famous chefs/bakers! The only downfall with this book in my opinion was the lack of recipes. I wanted to try Ellie’s creations. But I really enjoyed how each chapter started off with a letter to a baker or a chef. Even one of my favorites, Mary Berry, was included.

5. An author who writes from the heart. In the afterword, the author states her story was inspired by her child, who also uses a wheelchair. I have found that some of the most authentic reads about people with disabilities are written by parents. In this way, it reminded me of Out of my Mind by Sharon Draper, another wonderful read by a parent of a child with a disability.

 

Have you read any good character-driven middle grades lately? 

 

For more Monday Middle Grade reads or to join in on the fun, please visit Greg Pattridge's Always in the Middle blog.

MMGM: What Kids with Disabilities Want Writers to Know

While I don’t have a disability myself, I’ve been working with students with disabilities for most of my life. Currently, I teach students with moderate to profound disabilities at a virtual school. I’m always asking students about the books they enjoy reading. Books about characters with disabilities never make their list.

That got me thinking.


So I decided to make a list of what my students would like to see in books:

1. My disability is not my whole life. Most kids with disabilities don’t think of themselves as someone with attention issues or autism—that’s how parents and teachers think. They describe themselves as someone who loves basketball or insects or dogs. It'd be nice to see more books where a character's disability is not the only thing we learn about their character.

2. Having a sibling with a disability is not the worst thing that can happen. The story line of a typical child “dealing” with their sibling with a disability is too common. Imagine how that feels to the child who has that disability. I'd like to see more books that show the joys of having a child with special needs in the family.

3. I don’t like sad stories and/or I don’t want to “see” myself or my problems in print. While I do like seeing more stories about kids with disabilities, sometimes they can be so depressing. My students have enough difficulties in their lives. They don't want sadness in their entertainment. I'd like to see more stories about a kid, who just happens to have a disability, but also has fun. Besides, who are reading these sad stories anyways? Just teachers and librarians, it seems to me.

4.   Not being able to communicate doesn’t mean I’m not smart. Cynthia Lord demonstrates this so well in Rules with her character who uses communication board and so does Sharon Draper with Out of my Mind. We often misjudge people who communicate differently. I work with nonverbal students. Low language is the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much more going on underneath.

This is my list. I may not be an expert about what it’s like to live with a disability, but I’ve learned a lot from my students.

In a world where everyone focuses on what makes us different, my students’ tastes in books aren’t that different from most kids. They would love to see more books that are funny, where kids have adventures, and where having a struggle (whether it’s a disability or not) doesn't ruin your life.

What are your favorite books about kids or people with disabilities? What kind of books would you like to see?

MMGM: Navigating Early

I’m convinced that contrary to what people at writing workshops say, the hardest part of a book to write is the ending. I don’t know about you, but I’ve started many a book that was very promising only to fling it across the room (figuratively, of course) by the middle or the end. The worst is a book I love till the last chapter.  (And don’t get me started on those twists that make you see the whole book in a different light. These type of shocking endings don't often work.)

But then there’s a different kind of a book, a book that’s more like a slow simmer. It might start strong, it might meander, but the end is completely satisfactory, making you forget that you ever had to make yourself keep reading in parts.

That, my friends, is NAVIGATING EARLY. It was a book I loved from the beginning, had some doubts about in the middle, but was very pleased with how it ended.

The Synopsis (from Amazon):

From the author of Newbery Medal winner Moon Over Manifest comes the odyssey-like adventure of two boys’ incredible quest on the Appalachian Trail.

When Jack Baker’s father sends him from his home in Kansas to attend a boys’ boarding school in Maine, Jack doesn’t know what to expect. Certainly not Early Auden, the strangest of boys. Early keeps to himself, reads the number pi as a story, and refuses to accept truths others take for granted. Jack, feeling lonely and out of place, connects with Early, and the two become friends.

During a break from school, the boys set out for the Appalachian Trail on a quest for a great black bear. As Jack and Early travel deeper into the mountains, they meet peculiar and dangerous characters, and they make some shocking discoveries. But their adventure is only just beginning. Will Jack’s and Early’s friendship last the journey? Can the boys make it home alive?
What I loved about this book:

1. A book with a child with autism where the autism isn’t the focus. There’s been a lot of books with characters with autism in recent years, and most of them I love. But I loved even more that Early’s autism wasn’t named, and how Jack comes to realize Early actually has feelings. This may seem like a minor thing, but I think it's a common assumption people have. Kids with autism are still kids, with dreams and goals and real emotions.

2. Early—I already mentioned him in my last point, but he has to be one of my all-time favorite characters. I loved how he listened to music on different days—and he has such fantastic taste. (Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, Billie Holiday!) Usually I bond with the narrator, but Early was the character I sympathized with the most. He is why I kept reading.

3. Metaphors and narrative progressions—I loved how the author used Early's days of the week music, especially how Billie Holiday was for rainy days, and the whole concept of raining inside. There were other luscious and meaningful patterns and repetitions in this. Lovely.

4.  Pi! I cannot forget the main reason I picked up this book. I loved how Early saw Pi as a story, I loved the pi elements and mystery in terms of whether it stopped. (Before we read the afterword, which clearly said it was fiction, my kids and I had some interesting discussions about this.)

What more can I say? There’s adventure, boating, pirates, a murder mystery, and a story within a story. If you like character-driven novels with a lot of depth and adventure, this one’s for you!

Just for fun, I’m including a picture from our Pi celebration last month. We always make a p-i-e in honor of it. It’s on March 14 (3.14), if you’d like to celebrate next year! Come to think of it, NAVIGATING EARLY would be the perfect read for that day.

To check out more Marvelous Middle Grade suggestions, check out Shannon Messenger's blog. 

MMGM: Cloud and Wallfish

I am late to the party on CLOUD AND WALLFISH, although I actually read this last fall. When I picked the book up, I knew the author’s name was familiar. I’d read THE WRINKLED CROWN by her, but though that was intriguing, it doesn’t hold a candle to CLOUD AND WALLFISH. I think this is what happens when a writer really writes from the heart. Nesbit’s heart came through strong and clear in this one—and it was obvious that she knew her setting like the back of her hand.

Here’s the synopsis (from Amazon):

Noah Keller has a pretty normal life, until one wild afternoon when his parents pick him up from school and head straight for the airport, telling him on the ride that his name isn’t really Noah and he didn’t really just turn eleven in March. And he can’t even ask them why — not because of his Astonishing Stutter, but because asking questions is against the newly instated rules. (Rule Number Two: Don’t talk about serious things indoors, because Rule Number One: They will always be listening). As Noah—now “Jonah Brown”—and his parents head behind the Iron Curtain into East Berlin, the rules and secrets begin to pile up so quickly that he can hardly keep track of the questions bubbling up inside him: Who, exactly, is listening — and why? When did his mother become fluent in so many languages? And what really happened to the parents of his only friend, Cloud-Claudia, the lonely girl who lives downstairs? In an intricately plotted novel full of espionage and intrigue, friendship and family, Anne Nesbet cracks history wide open and gets right to the heart of what it feels like to be an outsider in a world that’s impossible to understand.

Cloud and Wallfish

1.    Nonfiction at the end of chapters help kids understand the historical background: I thought this was an interesting way for the author to give kids background about the time period without overloading the actual story.

2.    Setting/time period I’m drawn to: As many of you know, I lived in Ukraine shortly after the Iron Curtain fell, so I could relate to so many of the oddities and situations  described in this book. I loved how it showed the propaganda against the U.S. It rang true for me on so many levels.

3.    Interesting kids: Both Jonah (Wallfish) and Claudia (Cloud) were such interesting, unique characters. Their friendship was beautifully handled and well-done. The “Cloud” scene at the end is an image that will stay for me a long time.

4.    Biblical allusions: I thought the references to the Tower of Babel and Jonah and the Whale added a lot of depth to this story, although it is not a religious book.

Caveat: The interesting thing about this book was that I expected from the first chapter that it was going to be a spy novel with lots of action, people being chased, etc.  And though spies are integral to the plot, and the stakes are high, it was really a character-driven novel about a cross-cultural friendship about what life was like behind the Iron Curtain. Now, I was not disappointed at all, because I love novels about friendships and novels set during the Cold War, but if you’re looking for James Bond-type book set in Eastern Germany, you might be disappointed.

If you enjoy reading about this time period, you might also enjoy SECOND FIDDLE by Roseanne Parry, another favorite of mine, which is about an American violinist in Eastern Germany shortly after communism ended.

Have you read Cloud and Wallfish or any other novels set during the Cold War?

To check out more Marvelous Middle Grade suggestions, check out Shannon Messenger's blog. 

MMGM: Rainy by Sis Deans

I picked up this book because I’ve been doing some research on ADHD for my work-in-progress. While I like to read memoirs to get an insider’s view, sometimes it’s also effective to read fiction to see how other authors have tackled the same issues. This summer I read three novels with protagonists with ADHD, but RAINY by far was my favorite.

Here’s the synopsis:

A vivid portrait of a girl with a hyperactive mind

Rainy isn't thrilled about going to camp, away from her family and her beloved dog, Max. Without her family there to help, how will she stay focused when her thoughts start bouncing around her brain like ping-pong balls?

Once Rainy finds friends who can handle her extreme energy, she decides that camp is great. She's even gotten good at keeping track of her things. But when bad news from home floods her head with too many thoughts, she forgets the rules and sets off on a dangerous journey.

 
With her signature mix of humor and heart, Sis Deans explores the hectic world of a girl learning to live with ADHD.

What I liked about Rainy:

1.  A character with a lot of heart: It was hard not to fall in love with Rainy, who gets lost when she finds something interesting and is always misinterpreting what adults and other kids are saying to her. For true-to-life kidlike thinking and behavior, this book gets a 10+.

2.  An authentic ADHD character: Rainy felt like the friends, students, and others I know who struggle with ADHD. 

3.  A book without the moral, “everything will be okay if you just take your meds.” I think one of the reasons I was dissatisfied with some of the other books is that the conflict or main problem was solved once the main character  with ADHD got the right dosage. While drugs do help some children, I liked that the author did not use this as a plot device. Rainy's parents do not want her on drugs, so she must learn coping techniques on her own--often with humorous results.

4.  A camp setting: Need I say more? I’ve read a few novels set at camp this summer—and there’s something about the nostalgia for my own camp days that made this such an enjoyable read.

5.  Interesting format: I loved how Deans interspersed Rainy’s “unedited” letters home throughout the text. This gave us another peak into Rainy’s mind.

Parental/teacher warning: My only caveat about this is book is that there is some language, which I found a bit out of place for a ten-year-old girl.

As I was reading this and reflecting on some of the other novels I’ve read this summer about kids and teens with disabilities, I’ve noticed a not-very-surprising trend: people who have the disability in question tend to write more authentic books. In her author’s note, Deans talks about how she grew up in the 60s when Ritalin was not used, so the book in many ways reflects her own experience. 

What are your favorite books about kids (or adults) with disabilities?


To check out more Marvelous Middle Grade suggestions, check out Shannon Messenger's blog.