Fantasy Lovers, Get Savvy!

Mississippi Beaumont and her crazy, zany family have a secret. Despite the fact that they seem like your typical American family on the surface, this secret makes them truly unique.The secret? They each possess a "savvy" - a special power revealed upon their thirteenth birthday which enables them to do the supernatural. Her grandpa can move mountains and her great aunt Jules could step back twenty minutes in time every time she sneezed. Olive, a second cousin, has the ability to melt ice with a glare. Momma is perfect and her older brothers Rocket and Fish can create electricity and hurricanes respectively. Mississippi, or Mibs, is awkward, gawky (as so many pre-teens are) and eagerly awaiting her thirteenth birthday to learn her savvy. But then two days before her special day, her father is in a car accident and rushed to the hospital. Mibs, on a mission to see her father, sneaks on to a bus that she believes is headed towards the hospital. It is soon apparent that the bus carrying Mibs, Rocket, Fish and two of the local pastor's children, is actually headed in the opposite direction of the hospital! Mibs and her companions find themselves on the ride of a lifetime that will teach them not just about their savvies but about the realities of growing up.

I loved this book for many reasons. The characters were so unique and endearing - its as if your best friends from when you were younger were infused with the abilities of your favorite superheroes. They were also extremely realistic and human - two qualities I don't normally associate with fantasy characters. There is a great interview with the author, Ingrid Law, on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Savvy-Ingrid-Law/dp/0142414336/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290552911&sr=8-1)  in which she says that she sought to create a different sort of fantasy novel in Savvy. "I wanted to create a different kind of magic—one that called to mind the feel of a modern American tall-tale. I wanted to break away from the traditional tales about magic and find roots in the soil around me. What would magic look like if it sprang up in the small towns of America?" To me this perfectly encapsulates Savvy. The characters can be role models for readers because of their reality.

I originally picked up this book because nearly every student in my cooperating classroom is obsessed with this book. So much so that one of my students who is a struggling reader was practically begging my cooperating teacher to let her read the book, despite the fact that she had ruled it out as a "just right" book. To me, if any book can cause children to a) pick it up en masse or b) beg to read it, it HAS to be good. And I was not disappointed. While I would recommend this book for students ages 9-11, Stonehouse has this book featured in its Battle of the Books program and rightfully so in my opinion; It is a bit challenging and lengthy for most students. However, I feel that Savvy's message is great for all ages -  a celebration of idividuality and remaining true to yourself, is applicable and valuable to students of all ages.