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.

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

I'm in a Facebook group called Renee's Reading Club and everyone there has been raving about Robert Dugoni's The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell. It comes up all the time when someone is asking for a nice, good novel. Easy to read during a pandemic. A feel good novel.

I liked the book. It was easy to read. It was a good distraction from what's going on around us. The end left me with a feel good feeling. But did I love it? No. I merely liked it, although I really liked Dugoni's writing style. Would I recommend this novel? Sure. Why not?

Samuel Hill, a small town ophthalmologist, was born with an eye condition, ocular albinism, which gives his eyes a red color. When he started primary school, the kids called him "Devil Boy" which led to him being called Sam Hell. His mother always claimed that he had extraordinary eyes because he was going to have an extraordinary life.

It was Sam's two best friends, Ernie and Mickie, who helped him get through those primary school days and beyond. This is really a novel about friendship. What we need our friends for and how we give back. I was envious of the close friendships that Sam was able to maintain for so many years.

I'm hoping this won't be my last post for who knows how long. I'm having trouble with the new format of blogger. Once the "legacy" format goes away, unless they really fix the new format, I won't be able to post. Blogger says I'll be able to use the old format for another two weeks. And I'm sure I'll finish a few more books before then. In the meantime, this is frustrating. Follow me on Facebook if you can't follow me here.

Wonder

I'd seen the trailers for the movie, "Wonder," and  it seemed like my kind of movie. I never gave much thought to whether it was a book first or not, even though these stories usually are. But when I was in New York to celebrate Christmas with my granddaughters, and the 9 year old was engrossed in the novel by R.J. Palacio, I decided that I needed to read the book. I immediately requested the e-book from the library. Not quite 2 months later, I had the book in my hands, virtually speaking.

I loved this book. All the voices in the book were authentic. Which is quite a feat considering the story is told from several different perspectives. There were lots of characters to really like, a few to really dislike, and a few characters that changed my opinion over the course of the novel.

August (Auggie) was born with cranofacial differences which require lots of surgeries and at age ten, he still looks very different. Until fifth grade, Auggie was home-schooled. In fifth grade, his mother feels that he belongs in a regular classroom setting. His father disagrees at first. Once he's on board, the mother balks.

This book is about how kids who are different - in any way - are treated in middle school. (At the prep school Auggie attends, fifth grade is middle school.) As a former fifth grade teacher, I can confirm that I have seen some of the minor bullying that takes place in this story. There's been a lot of push back by the cranofacial organizations that it was a) unfair to put prosthetics on a normal featured boy rather than casting a child with one of the conditions that causes an appearance such as that portrayed and b) Auggie was celebrated as an inspirational hero just for being... nice? resistant to bullying? I get that. But I see a bigger picture.

I see the bigger bullying picture. Fifth graders can be really mean. Friendship groups shift based on rumors.

Auggie has a sister starting high school. In addition to dealing with a younger sibling who gets most of the parental attention, she's also dealing with old friendships that no longer quite fit.

The characters are authentic,the voices are authentic, the situations are, for the most part, real. I got to read about some pretty cool fifth graders, an understanding school director and an inspirational teacher. For me, what wasn't there to like?