


But now they’re on the bus and have convinced the bus driver to take them to Selma and she’s got four other kids in tow, so it’s not exactly the moment to turn around. Determined to get to her father, she sneaks on to the bus, followed by her brothers Fish and Samson, and the preacher’s children, Bobbi and Will Junior.Īnd yet, she is starting to get a little nervous that maybe the events of the morning were coincidental – when she sees a tattoo on Bobbi’s lower back that begins to talk to her, telling her Bobbi’s inner thoughts and then when the bus driver’s two arm tattoos also begin shouting at her, she suspects that this is truly her savvy, not an ability to wake people up.

At the church that morning, where her birthday is being celebrated, she sees a Bible-selling bus that is based in Selma, where her father is in the hospital. Her mother and oldest brother rush off to be with him, while the rest of the family remains behind to continue life and celebrate Mib’s birthday.Ī few events in the early morning of her birthday convinces Mibs that her savvy is to awaken people and she believes that, if she can only get to her father, she can wake him up from his coma. Two days before her thirteenth birthday, Mibs is anxious to discover what her own savvy will be, until her father is involved in a terrible car accident and lays in a far away hospital deep in a coma. Mib’s grandma can bottle radio waves, her grandpa can create land, and her other brother can manipulate electricity. A savvy is some special and magical talent.

This wasn’t a total surprise, though, because all of Mib’s family gains a “savvy” on their thirteenth birthday. This Savvy book starts out with Mibs and her family live out in the absolute boonies of Kansas they moved there after her older brother, Fish, turned thirteen and discovered his moods manifested themselves in uncontrollable winds – the one on his thirteenth birthday whipped up a hurricane and necessitated a move far away from the ocean. There has been a whole lot of buzz about Savvy being a possible Newbery title for 2008 and now I’m inclined to agree – it just has that Newbery feel to it.
