Savvy

felicisowl - "Climbing into bed on the night before my very own most important birthday, after an evening of Miss Rosemary's meat loaf and interference, I did not pray for a powerful savvy like Rocket's or X-Ray vision or the ability to run super-fast or to breathe underwater. I had just two simple wishes - the first one was for Father to be alright and the second wish, the second wish was that no one - no one - would come to my birthday party." Mibs Beaumont is no ordinary teenager. From her brother Rocket who can control electricity to her brother Fish who can control water telepathically, each member of her family has a special power - a savvy. Mibs had always wished for a powerful savvy, like Fish's savvy and Rocket's savvy. But disaster struck when her father was injured severely in a car crash, and there's no way to tell if he's going to live or not. All Mibs wishes for on her thirteenth birthday (the number 13 is important in this story because it's always when a member of the Beaumont family gets their savvy) is to have a savvy that can wake her Papa up. But when the interfering and meddlesome priest's wife, Ms. Rosemary, plans a birthday party for Mibs in the church (with almost every teenager and child in the town attending), Mibs believes that her savvy is waking up people and animals because she thought she woke up her little brother Samson's turtle and her baby sister in the morning. But more importantly, maybe her savvy is saving Papa! Mibs climbs onto a tour bus delivering pink Bibles, with Fish, Samson, and the priest's kids, Will and Bobbi in tow. The tour bus is driven by Lester Swan, who has a weak heart and can't say no when the kids tell him that Mibs is going to see her father in a hospital in Kansas. But as she hears tattoos on Bobbi and Lester begin to move and talk, Mibs learns that her savvy is just making ink-based marks on skin speak and move. Now they're in serious trouble - her savvy isn't going to wake up Papa after all! As they travel on towards the hospital, Lester picks up Lill Kiteley, a kind, fun woman who's car was broken down and she couldn't get to her job in a restaurant, so Lester offers to drive her there. On the long way to the restaurant and hospital (getting delayed, huh..) the children and the adults warm to each other and they become a sort of a family. But do some of the characters have secrets? Will's hiding something from Mibs, what is it? Is Bobbi such a tough, harsh girl on the inside? Do Will and Mibs have "feelings" for each other? And what happens when the police catches up and thinks Lill and Lester kidnapped the children? How will they ever get to the hospital now? And if they get there, will Mibs' papa ever wake up? Hmm.. I don't know quite what to say about this particular book. It made tears well up and drop on the pages, because it was so sad. In some bits, it made me laugh jubilantly because it seemed like they finally got their happy ending. This book was full of many twists and turns and it surprised me so many times! I love that Mibs is a strong, independent, witty, reckless, and overall amazing character. These are characters you'd see once in a lifetime in books - they are so defined, they have their own personalities, they seem so "alive" and three-demensional.. I love the relationships between the different characters too... most of the characters are great role models, since they are kind, charismatic, and plain funny sometimes! :giggles: But most of all, it made me cry - it wasn't particularly a sad book, but it made me really sad because I could relate, and I knew all the problems Mibs was...

Starred review from April 7, 2008
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Reviewed by
Sarah Mlynowski
In Mississippi Beaumont's family, turning 13 means your savvy kicks in. When her grandfather turned 13, he created Idaho. And when her brother turned 13, he caused a hurricane. At the start of Law's winning debut novel, Mississippi's 13th birthday is only two days away.
With her dad in a coma after a horrible car accident, Mississippi is convinced that her savvy will have something to do with waking people up. Along with her brothers, the cute preacher's son and his obnoxious gum-chomping sister, she sneaks aboard a delivery bus she believes is heading toward her dad, hoping to save him.
The thing about Mississippi? She's not always right. Turns out, her savvy has her hearing a whole bunch of voices—in her head. When people around her have any type of ink—say, a tattoo or a pen mark—on their skin, she can't help but read their minds.
What makes this book so engaging is that aside from the whole mind-reading thing, Mississippi isn't extraordinary. She's not excessively brilliant, incredibly attractive or overly girly. She's afraid of growing up. She prefers to be called Mibs, but the mean girls call her Missy-Pissy. She wishes she could mess up less and be more like her perfect mom. (Literally, perfect—that's her mother's savvy.) Readers, boys and girls alike, will see a bit of themselves in Mibs.
Also, the Beaumonts aren't the only ones with savvys. Normal people (the bus driver, the hitchhiker, the obnoxious gum-chomper) have them, too—they just don't recognize them. As Mibs's mom says, “One person might make strawberry jam so good that no one can get enough of it.... There are even those folks who never get splashed by mud after a rainstorm or bit by a single mosquito in the summertime.†The 10-year-old boy or the 40-year-old mom reading the book—they might just have one, too.
Besides saving her dad, Mibs's quest in the novel is to learn to “scumbleâ€â€”in other words, control her savvy. She has to learn to quiet the voices she hears, and to find her own voice.
Law has definitely found hers. Short chapters and cliffhangers keep the pace quick, while the mix of traditional language and vernacular helps the story feel both fresh and timeless. And while road-trip novels tend to be more about the journey than the destination, the ending, like Momma's savvy, is pretty perfect. I wasn't sure how Law was going to manage it without going all fairy-tale, but she does the story justice, making the conclusion happy and heart-rending simultaneously, resisting the urge to tie it all up with a fancy ribbon and a happily ever after.
Law's savvy? She's a natural storyteller who's created a vibrant and cinematic novel that readers are going to love. Ages 9-11. (May)

Sarah Mlynowski is the author of the Magic in Manhattan series, the most recent of which is
Spells & Sleeping Bags (paperback reprint from Delacorte due this month), and, with E. Lockhart and Lauren Myracle, the coauthor of
How to Be Bad (HarperTeen, May).

May 1, 2008
Gr 4-7-Mississippi Beaumont ("Mibs" for short) simply cannot wait for her 13th birthday. There's the allure of finally becoming a teenager, of course, but in the Beaumont family, 13 is when family members get their "savvy," or unworldly power. For Mibs's older brother Fish, it's control over the elements, and for her mother it's the ability to do everything perfectly. Unfortunately, Mibs's excitement is cut short when her father is injured in a car accident. Convinced that her new powers will be able to save her Poppa, she and some new friends climb aboard a bus toting pink bibles on her birthday, in the hopes of getting to the hospital. Instead they find themselves headed in the wrong direction with the cops looking for them, Mibs's powerful brother seriously angry, and the son of a preacher man she has a crush on coming dangerously close to figuring out the Beaumonts' secret. Mibs's real savvy isn't what she expected, and neither are her traveling companions. Though the story never lives up to the brilliance of its opening chapter, Law has a feel for characters and language that is matched by few. With its delightful premise and lively adventure, this book will please a wide variety of audiences, not just fantasy fans. Definitely an author to watch."Elizabeth Bird, New York Public Library"

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