Savvy

I'm not sure what drew me to Savvy...maybe the fun cover! I did notice when I was at the library searching for something else the other day that they had about six more copies of this book, so apparently it is (or at least was) a popular book. And it has a Newbery Honor seal on it.

Basically Mibs belongs to a family of people who learn what their special gift, or Savvy, is on their 13th birthday. One of her brothers makes electricity, one creates crazy weather patterns, her grandpa makes earthquakes. Mibs' 13th birthday falls just after her father is in a terrible accident. The local minister's wife decided Mibs needs a party, but Mibs just wants to see her father. She and two of her brothers and two of the minister's kids end up in a pink school bus with a pink Bible salesman on a crazy, detouring trip...and she figures out what her Savvy is...she can hear people's thoughts through their tattoos or writing on their skin.

Part of having a Savvy is to learn how to scumble it...which basically means control and suppress it...Mibs has to learn how to tune out the noise to hear what is important.

In the end they make it to the hospital, but not without first having a few adventures and having some secrets revealed...

I liked this book and I would definitely recommend it - especially to a 10 -13 year old girl - there's lots of important stuff about growing up in there.

I decided this one was a kid lit book too because Mibs turns 13...I can't see someone older than about 14 reading it...so it's not quite a YA novel (even though I found it in the YA section).

Oh, and I discovered there is a companion novel - Scumble - so I will be keeping an eye out for it the next time we're at the library!