Gertie's Leap to Greatness

I have just discovered another author who writes those sweet, little heart warmers.  Kate Beasley, not only are you just adorable (got to hear her talk on The Yarn podcast), but Gertie is a cutie pie.  Gertie’s Leap to Greatness is Kate’s first published trade book, and it is a good one.  Reminiscent of Because of Winn-Dixie and Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo or Dear Hank Williams by Kimberly Willis Holt, this book is sure to find its way into classrooms as wonderful read alouds and/or engaging self-selections.  No matter what, though, it demands to be discussed. 

Gertie is on a mission.  Her mom left her with her daddy and her Aunt Rae, and Gertie is determined to show her mom just how great she is and what a mistake it was to leave the family.  It is definitely not because Gertie wants her mom back, no siree; it is definitely just to show her how great she is!  

Because her mom moved just across town when she left and owns the house with the big “For Sale” sign in the front yard, Gertie is forced every day, as her school bus creeps past the house, to face the fact that her mom is leaving for good without even acknowledging that she still has a daughter.  But Gertie does not want her mom back; good Lord, she does not!  She just wants to look her mom in the face and see the regret in her eyes when she realizes just how great her daughter is.  So, Gertie begins phase one of the mission…only there is a problem…a Mary Sue Spivey problem.  

Mary Sue is the new girl in town, and she is perfect; she is great.  But, Gertie wanted to be the greatest, and this is where the mission gets complicated.  Just so that she can prove herself to her mother (She definitely doesn’t want her back!), Gertie has to defeat Mary Sue and steal the lead in the school play, teach herself all of the fifth-grade material in one weekend without losing her best friend, eat a whole bowl of chocolates, and defend the honor of her dad who is not destroying the earth out there on that oil rig.  In the process, Gertie does some not-so-great things, and she learns that maybe even seat-stealers have their own heartbreaking missions.  Will Gertie choose to do the right thing in the end?  Will she leap to greatness?  That is what readers will want to know; that is why they won’t want to leave Gertie’s sweet and funny little story.

But, here is the little caveat.  Readers will probably put the book down and still want to know why.  I wanted to know why.  In fact, I said aloud when I finished the book, “Kate Beasley did not tell me why.”  I was so upset until I realized that maybe that is the point.  We don’t know why bad things happen to kids or why parents make really poor decisions.  Sometimes those things just never get explained, and we have to find our own greatness without knowing the answers to the why questions.  It’s hard, but it is real.  We can be great in spite of the fact that others are not so great.  Go Gertie! 

     

Gertie’s Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley, 249 pages from Farrar Straus Giroux/New York (2016). ISBN # 978-0-374-30261-0

Ideal for readers in elementary grades (especially those who need to grapple with how to be great when life does not treat you so great)

    

Fat Angie by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo

Fat Angie by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo is another moving young adult lit. novel that rotates on the axis of acceptance.  Angie, who is struggling to survive in the wake of her sister’s disappearance, can barely find the strength to exist.  She is brutally bullied by her peers, her brother, and even her own mother.  She refuses to accept the reality that her sister is dead.  And, she has allowed her self-talk to eat away at the person she wants to be, the person she can be.  She sees only Fat Angie.  Until…she meets K.C. Romance.  Beautiful, strong, tattoo-laden, gay-girl-gay K.C. notices her and sees, really sees Angie.  Buoyed by her relationship with the fragile, yet durable, K.C., Angie finds the strength to pick herself up and live again.    

The story is moving.  The characters are strong.  The writing style is both beautiful and painful at the same time.  I hurt for Angie, K.C., and even Wang.  I wanted to hurt for Angie’s mom, but I just couldn’t because I could not forgive her for what she did to her daughter(s).  I was actually even a little angry with e.E. because the narrator called Angie Fat Angie for a good part of the book.  I hated that.  I wanted it to stop.  Of course, the brilliance is that is does begin to stop as Angie begins to see herself as more than Fat Angie.  I was so thankful for the hopeful ending.  No, it’s not rainbows and lollipops, but “she was happy” (p. 264).  That is what we want in life, right?  We want to be happy amid the chaos, the pain, and the uncertainty.  After taking the reader on a roller-coaster of emotional ups and downs, e.E. grants this small kernel of hope…happiness.  

This is definitely a book for teens who are struggling.  The book is packed full of the gamut of struggles: body image, rejection, bullying, cutting, sexual identity, fitting in, being an individual, abusive parents, uncaring adults (who are supposed to care)…  The struggles are real.  e.E. does not hide it; however, the book gives kids a safe place to explore the pain of the struggles and see that glimmer of hope at the end.  What a great book for classroom conversations as well; even for the bully, the bigot, etc.  As Stacy Ann showed us in the book, they are struggling too.  Books like these, as I have said many times before, make us better people; readers cannot walk away without a new understanding of how others feel when they are bound by the chains of the struggle.  Books like these cause us to think twice about what we say to people who are being strangled by the struggle.  Too bad Connie did not have a book like this to read (read the book; it will make sense then).    

Fat Angie by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo, 264 pages from Candlewick Press (2013). ISBN # 978-0-7636-6119-9

Ideal for young adult readers (and especially parents of teens who are struggling)