Savvy by Ingrid Law

Newly awarded a Newbery Honor!

"My savvy is going to be a good one," I told my brother Rocket. "I just know it."

"Girls don't get the powerful jujubes," said Rocket, running one hand through his dark shock of unkempt hair with a crackle of static. "Girls only get quiet, polite savvies-sugar and spice and everything humdrum savvies. It's boys who get the earthshaking kinds of savvy."

Mississippi "Mibs" Beaumont is about to turn 13, which is when people in her family develop their own special, magical gift, or savvy. Just before that special day however, her father is involved in a car accident. Her mother and older brother rush to tend to their father in a coma, and leaves Mibs, her grandfather, 14 year old Fish, seven year old Sampson, and three year old baby sister Gypsy in the house. On her birthday, Mibs has the unmistakable urge to go see her father, convinced that her secret savvy will help her father recover. She steals away with her two brothers and the preacher's children on a pink Bible delivery bus, and the adventures begin. With Mibs and her brother Fisch trying to stifle their savvys and get them under control before they are discovered, they both realize that they aren't the only ones who have secrets. Savvy by Ingrid Law is a beautifully written book and the story goes until the very end, pulling readers in with its simplicity. If you don't want to read it, then listen to Lily Blau's narration on the audiobook, which punctuates the entire book with different voices that match the characters perfectly.

AMY