Assignment 4: Savvy by Ingrid Law

I chose to read Savvy because it was the only Newbery book I could find at the airport on my way out of town. It is about a girl named Mibs and her family who, as they turn thirteen, gain a "Savvy." These are supernatural powers, and once they get them, they leave public school so they can learn to control their savvy without worrying about prying eyes or hurting others accidentally. Before Mibs' birthday, there is an accident and her father is hospitalized. A woman from town comes to help take care of them, and plans a birthday party, in public. This is a problem because the Savvy can be. . . an explosive event. Mibs believes her savvy can help wake her father from his coma and there the adventure starts to get to the hospital. It also addresses the social and emotional awkwardness teenagers go through and finding out their own place in society.

The language in this book is amazing. The author uses many literary techniques to convey her message and paint pictures in the readers mind and make it relatable. These techniques include hyperbole, alliteration, rhyming, and also interesting vocabulary that I have not even heard before.

pg 1. "mighty kind of liking"
pg 2. ". . . streamers roiling together and siintegrating like a birthday party in a blender."
"Rain pelted us like a gravel thrown by a playground bully..."
pg 5. "sugar and spice and everything humdrum..."
pg 9. "scumble"
"The house itself had broken out into a ripe, nervous sweat"
pg 13. "soggy boggy road"
pg 16. "arma-double L-dillo"
pg 94. "catawampus"

This is just a small sample.
A lot of the description relates to situations that YAs have experienced themselves and uses similes to show what is happening looks like. You are never left wondering how the author wants you to picture the story and if you are a reader who has trouble with picturing what is happening in your mind, this is a great book to help you learn to do that.

Text to self
There are so many awkward situations I have been in where you feel you do not quite fit into your own skin or wonder what everyone else is thinking about you. Wondering why people do what they do and have a sudden realization that just maybe that person feels just as unsure and awkward as you do, they just show it differently.

I love how the author plays with words. I like to do this myself a lot and when I read how she combines words, it made it very relatable to myself.