Fin50: A Change in the Weather

A Change in the Weather is this month’s prompt from Bruce Gargoyle in his Fiction in Fifty (Fi50) meme.  You can join in this fun communal story-telling any time you like, and post any time during the month. Bruce posts his today, and you can drop in and link to your own.

A Change in the Weather

We got along well for most of the voyage; it was a shame to ruin it. But 7 months of just us two and I had permanent tooth marks in my tongue.

I could only offer a warning: “There’ll be a change in the weather before we make port, partner.”

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2017
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

Middle Grade Review: Petey, by Ben Mikaelsen

Title: Petey
Author: Ben Mikaelsen
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion, 1998. 280 pages
Source: School district book giveaway. (Book was leftover and is en route to other young readers, lest anyone think I was snatching books meant for our children).

Publisher's Summary:
In 1922, at the age of two, Petey's distraught parents commit him to the state's insane asylum, unaware that their son is actually suffering from severe cerebral palsy. Bound by his wheelchair and struggling to communicate with the people around him, Petey finds a way to remain kind and generous despite the horrific conditions in his new "home." Through the decades, he befriends several caretakers but is heartbroken when each eventually leaves him. Determined not to be hurt again, he vows to no longer let hope of lifelong friends and family torment him.

That changes after he is moved into a nursing home and meets a young teen named Trevor Ladd; he sees something in the boy and decides to risk friendship one last time. Trevor, new to town and a bit of a loner, is at first wary of the old man in the wheelchair. But after hearing more of his story, Trevor learns that there is much more to Petey than meets the eye.

Petey is a touching story of friendship, discovery, and the uplifting power of the human spirit.

My Review:
I zipped through this in pretty much two sittings. That's partly because it's not a terribly long book, but is more because it is a gripping (and heartbreaking) book. Reading of the conditions of Petey's life really did hurt. The author uses an almost reportorial style for that section of the book, with bits told from the perspective of a few caregivers who come to know Petey (and gradually to see that he is not "retarded," but is in fact intelligent, though barely able to speak due to his CP). We get glimpses, as well, into Petey's own mind, and gradually (as he ages and matures) get more and more of that. The result is a wrenching recognition of the pain of being trapped inside a body that will do nothing he asks of it, even communicate, in a world that for the most part doesn't think he's even capable of thinking.

In the second half, the point of view shifts to Trevor, in 1990. It is similar to the glimpses we got of caregivers through the years, but we have a more complete understanding of Trevor, as he does become the focus of the book. The second half is more about the boy than the man, as Petey becomes, instead of a figure of helplessness with people coming and going out of his control, an active participant in his own life--and Trevor's.

I'm not sure that the relationship between Trevor and Petey, or the transformation of the boy, is 100% believable, but it works, and the result is a story that made me cry.


My Recommendation:
I waffled a bit about putting this in juvvy or YA. I went with the library's category, but there are some things to be aware of. The first half of the book is set from the 1920s to the 1970s, and both depicts all too grimly the conditions in which a severely handicapped person lived in that era, and the language with which they were described (including words we no longer use). But the overarching message of the story is very good, and any questions about terms can be discussed with young readers.

FTC Disclosure: I picked up a copy of Petey at a book give-away event (see above), and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

Middle Grade Review: The Thing About Jellyfish, by Ali Benjamin

 

Title: The Thing About Jellyfish

Author: Ali Benjamin

Publisher: Little, Brown & Co., 2015. 343 pages.

Source: Library

Publisher's Summary:

After her best friend dies in a drowning accident, Suzy is convinced that the true cause of the tragedy must have been a rare jellyfish sting-things don't just happen for no reason. Retreating into a silent world of imagination, she crafts a plan to prove her theory--even if it means traveling the globe, alone.

My Review:

First, I want to add a couple of things to the summary: Suzy's grief is complicated by the fact that she and her friend hadn't just parted on bad terms; they had grown apart. And she is the kind of kid who knows lots and lots of little facts, and takes comfort in them.

In fact, then, Suzy appears to be yet another middle-school-book character who is a bit on the Aspergers side of normal.* This does lend legitimacy to her difficulty relating to the other girls her age, including her (former) best friend Franny. She just doesn't get those girly concerns, and they don't get her somewhat different way of seeing/processing the world (which she doesn't know how to filter for the others).

Fine. I'm okay with that, to a point. I do wonder, though, about the prevalence of this character, because it seems like I'm seeing it a lot (the kid with Aspergers, I mean). Is it just an easy way to make the struggles of middle school stand out with greater clarity? I wonder about how well most kids can relate to the "weird kids" in the books. 

Okay, rant over, I will agree with the blurbs that talk about this as a moving book. It is. Suzy's path through her grief to some kind of acceptance is striking and should give most readers, of any age, pause to think (including to think about their relationships). And Suzy's efforts to make sense out of the random accident that caused her friend's death are impressive, if quirky. I like the way she gradually finds her way to friends with whom she can relate, and her silence--she stops speaking entirely not long after the accident--make clear her recognition that she has issues with words. That is, she has trouble figuring out what might be the right words at any time (this makes the Aspergers part make more sense, and feel more necessary to the story, though I'm thinking plenty of neuro-typical middle school kids have no idea what to say).** She stops talking because her words seem to her to lead to trouble, rather than communication.

So: The Thing About Jellyfish is a beautifully written story that weaves together the difficulty of middle school with bigger life issues. 

Recommendation:

I think this would be a good story for a lot of middle-school kids to read, both the ones who struggle and the ones who make other struggle. Maybe books like this can help the "popular kids" recognize the humanity of the geeks and nerds and that weird kid who sits alone at lunch? I'm not sure. Most of us don't do well as seeing ourselves in the villains of a piece. But it's worth a try.  Ages 9 or 10 up.

*Note: Suzy is never explicitly described as having Aspergers Syndrome. But her obsessions, focus on obscure facts, and tendency to spew them out without controls make it pretty clear where the author was going with this.

**I can't help thinking of a current discussion in my Goodreads Great Middle Grade Reads group about what current books will become classics. There is a definite feeling that this sort of middle-school-trauma book is too tied to it's own time and place to have that kind of lasting appeal. I suspect that they are right, though that doesn't mean the book isn't a fine and valuable work right now.

FTC Disclosure: I checked The Thing About Jellyfish out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."