Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen

 

I decided that I needed a little bit of a break, wanted to read something that would be quick and easy, so I looked for a middle grade chapter book. Not sure how I found Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen on the library website but it seemed like it would fit the bill. It's also a epistolary novel, which you must know that I like a lot.

As a former fifth grade teacher, when I read a middle grade chapter book I read it as an adult reader, but I also think about how a fifth grader might read this book. Normally, I either like a book or dislike a book. In this case, I found Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen interesting but I'm not sure that it would hold the attention of most fifth graders.

Vivy Cohen is an 11-year old Jewish girl who loves baseball, just like her dad and her older brother. She met a pitcher when she was 8-years old who gave her tips on how to pitch a knuckleball. She has practiced and now she can pitch a knuckleball. (I'm not even sure if that's the correct terminology - pitch a knuckleball or throw a knuckleball?)

Vivy is also on the autistic spectrum. As part of her social skills group, she's asked to write a letter to someone. She writes to the baseball pitcher, now an MLB player, that she'd met three years earlier, never expecting him to write back. After the first letter, she continues writing. She's very surprised after a few of her letters, she finally receives a letter back from the pitcher, VJ. (Both Vivy and the pitcher have the initials VJC which I thought was kind of cute.) At about the same time, Vivi is invited to be on a Little League team. She's the first girl she knows to play baseball and not softball.

Vivy is able to express herself in writing to VJ far better than she can express herself orally to anyone else so he becomes her sounding board. She often asks for his advice and then rejects it. She's dealing with being on a team for the first time, facing a bully on the team, a brother who is increasingly distant, along with everything else an autistic sixth grader might be dealing with.

As an adult, I found it interesting, especially if how Vivy describes her feelings are actually those that a child on the spectrum would feel. I didn't find her at all engaging or even particularly likeable. Her character was well developed on many levels where I found the character of VJ extremely flat. Yes, I realize this was a book about baseball, but sometimes there was just too much baseball. I just didn't care about that. We eventually find out why Vivy's brother is distancing himself and I found that whole storyline unnecessary. It was more a mention than a storyline so why bother.

I  learned some new things but this isn't a book I would recommend.