Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I read Ingrid Law’s Savvy back when it was named a Newbery Honor book and loved it; I read Scumble a few years later and loved that, too.  For whatever reason, however, I didn’t learn about Switch until the last year or so.

I finished it last week.

To start off, Switch can properly be called a sequel to Savvy (Scumble is more of a companion novel).  It features Gypsy, Samson, and Tucker Beaumont, whose older siblings are grown and living their own adult lives by this point.  The catalyst for the story is their non-savvy grandmother’s inability to continue living alone, due to her ‘Old-Timer’s’ disease.  (Whether it’s officially Alzheimer’s or simply dementia isn’t specified.)  She’s never approved of their savvys (or their mother), and the youngest three Beaumonts don’t take at all well the news that she’ll be coming to live with them.  Abruptly, chaos ensues (both of the savvy and non-savvy variety).  I’d rather let you discover the specifics of the plot yourself–it’s going to be a better experience that way–but I will say that the main action feels like a subtle mashup of “Back to the Future” and “Adventures in Babysitting”, although I can’t say whether that’s completely intentional or not.  I wasn’t sure I liked this one as well as its predecessors at first, but I think it converted me by the end.  If you liked Savvy, you shouldn’t miss Scumble OR Switch; if you haven’t read anything by Law, well–summer’s a great time to start!