Savvy by Ingrid Law

Savvy by Ingrid Law

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Savvy is about a young girl named Mississippi (Mibs, for short) and her family, the Beaumont's. The Beaumont's have moved from Florida to "Kansaska-Nebransas" because of Mibs' brother's savvy. The thing about the Beaumont's is that when they turn 13, they get their savvy, a special talent, a hidden secret. Her brother, Rocket, can create electricity. Her other brother, Fish, can create powerful rain and storms. Her mother's savvy is that she is perfect. Her father is the only one who doesn't have a special savvy. They appreciate their savvys, even as they battle to contain, or scumble, them.

A few days before Mibs' 13th birthday, her Poppa gets into a terrible accident. Her mom and oldest brother make the trip to the hospital to see him, but once Mibs figures out her Savvy-that she can hear people's thoughts if they have ink on their skin-she feels that she can help Poppa and decides to make the trip to the hospital herself. She convinces Fish and the neighbor's kids, Will and Bobbi, to stowaway in a Bible salesman's bus to head to the hospital.

The only problem is, the bus turns the wrong way. The book tells the tale of how these kids make their way to Salina to their Poppa, with all sorts of adventures along the way. Themes of love, friendship and mostly family run deep in this book as the Beaumont children learn to scumble their savvys, and learn that friendship comes where it's least expected.

Ingrid Law has written this book with a light-hearted spirit, even though the book is not all happy-feel good, even in the end. I am excited to read the follow up, Scumble!

She also infused fun vocabulary throughout the book. Here are my favorite words from the text:

froufrou frippery, full on foofaraw, rumpus, niminy-piminy, bugaboo, catawampus & cockeyed, stodgiest old codger, brouhaha, flimflamming, flummoxed, higgledy-piggledy, tchotchkes, gewgaws, rumpus....

And, some of my favorite quotes:

“That night, I prayed that no one-no one- would come to my birthday party.” -- Savvy

“I had to find Poppa and I had to use my savvy to wake him up.” -- Savvy

“We get born and sometime later we die. And in between we're happy, and sad, we feel love and w feel fear, we eat and we sleep and we hurt like everyone else.” --Savvy

“Every good country home needs a place to sit and think and watch the clouds go by.” --Savvy

"A savvy isn't a sickness or a disease, Mibs," grandpa told me. " It's not magic or sorcery either. Your savvy's in your blood. It's an inheritance, like your brown eyes or your grandmas long toes or her talent for dancing to polka music." --Savvy

"You never can tell when a bad thing might make a good thing happen." --Savvy

I wouldn't let the voices of bullies or meanies or people who barely-hardly knew me work their way in to my brain and stick. --Savvy

I realized that good and bad were always there and always mixed up together in a tangle. --Savvy



View all my reviews