Savvy
by Ingrid Law
grades 4-6

Mississippi Beaumont, otherwise known as Mibs, has been looking forward to her thirteenth birthday for awhile. You see, in her family, when one turns thirteen, one finds out what his or her “savvy” is. A savvy is a special power. Each person on her mother’s side of the family has one. Her mother’s savvy is doing everything perfectly. Her oldest brother, Rocket, has a savvy for electricity. Her middle brother, Fish, has a savvy for wind and storms. Since they are both learning to “scumble,” or control, their savvies they are homeschooled. On the day before her thirteenth birthday, Mibs is thrilled to say good-bye to regular school and begin her home-schooling the next day, after a family party with a perfect cake made by her mother. Except the news comes that her father was in a terrible car accident, and is unconscious in the hospital. Her mother and Rocket head down to the hospital. Preacher Meek’s well-meaning wife decides to through Mibs a birthday party. But Beaumont thirteenth birthday parties are never what they seem, and this one ends with Mibs, Fish, their younger brother Samson, and the Preacher’s two children Bobbi and Will Jr stowing away on a pink school bus heading towards the hospital. I’ll let you read it from there. It’s a great story that will keep your attention until the end! A 2009 Newbery honor book.