Summary: Mibs is in middle school about to be homeschooled when she turns 13. Her family isn’t exactly ordinary. They each have inherited what they call a “savvy.” Her brother fish can control the weather and Rocket can control electricity. One day, their poppa gets in a terrible accident on the highway. He has to be hospitalized because he falls into a deep coma. Mibs has decided that she needs to get to her father as soon as possible in order to save him. She is planning on using her power, mind reading, to help her father wake up. The 3 siblings and friends journey on a bus headed in the wrong direction. They encounter obstacles but eventually make it to the hospital. Mibs hears her fathers’ thoughts with help from Miss Mermaid, a tattoo, and he wakes up extraordinarily. He is a little confused on some days but on others he is the same poppa that they’ve always known. Her mother is even pregnant but Mibs decides to keep quiet about that. Some days she wonders if people could hear her thought and feel what she feels. The book leaves with Samson, her cousin, turning 13 and awaiting his savvy.
Citation: Law, I. (2008). Savvy. New York, NY: Dial Books For Young Readers.
Impressions: This book wasn’t one of my favorites. I didn’t think that the stowed away bus trip with Lester was very exciting. Lester was whining about losing his job the entire way. I think that they could have just asked their grandfather to take them to see their dad. I didn’t think it was necessary for them to run away without telling anyone in order to get to their dad. Their missing report was all over the news as well. They had everyone worried about their whereabouts. Plus, I didn’t like that Mibs could read minds starting with the tattoo angel on Bobbi’s back. I think that that was really strange. I don’t think that the other siblings powers were very extraordinary either and really didn’t serve a purpose. I wanted their special powers to help people or have some relevancy. The powers just created havoc, all except Mibs.
Reviews:
From Kirkus Reviews
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. (Fantasy. 10-13)
Kirkus Reviews Associates. (May 1, 2008). Review. Kirkus Review. Retrieved fromhttp://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ingrid-law-2/savvy/#review.
From Kirkus Reviews
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. (Fantasy. 10-13)
Kirkus Reviews Associates. (May 1, 2008). Review. Kirkus Review. Retrieved fromhttp://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ingrid-law-2/savvy/#review.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Upon turning 13, each member of the Beaumont family develops a supernatural ability, or “savvy, ” which must then be tamed. Well aware of the problems savvys can bring (the family had to relocate when one child had difficulty controlling his storm-producing savvy), 12-year-old Mississippi (Mibs) awaits her birthday eagerly but with a bit of trepidation. Then Poppa is seriously injured in an accident far away, and Momma goes to his side, leaving Mibs and the rest of the family to cope with Mibs’ 13th birthday on their own. Initially believing that her savvy is the ability to restore life, Mibs sets her course for Poppa. Joined by her brothers and the local preacher’s kids, she sweet talks her way onto a traveling Bible salesman’s bus. On the journey, however, Mibs realizes her savvy isn’t what she thought, which opens the way for a number of lively adventures both geographic and emotional. Law’s storytelling is rollicking, her language imaginative, and her entire cast of whacky, yet believable characters delightful. Readers will want more from Law; her first book is both wholly engaging and lots of fun. Grades 5-7. --
Goldsmith, F. (May 15, 2008). Booklist review. Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com/Savvy-Ingrid-Law/pid=2605237.
Suggestions: Even though I did not enjoy this book, I think that it could be used in a fantasy themed project. Students could conduct their own character charts of themselves and what special powers or Savvy they would like to have.
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