Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

My friend Britt read Fish in a Tree several years ago and loved it, telling me it needed to be a thing in my life; I finally got around to it this month while questing for good books for my second girlie for Christmas.

I SO enjoyed it.

Ally captured me from the get-go, and her growing friendships are fabulous. Sometime in the middle of it, however, I went to look at what other books Lynda Mullaly Hunt has written, and I came across a bunch of negative reviews. Reading those mid-book was probably a mistake, as it messed with my reading experience, but it did make me think critically about this story of a floundering dyslexic girl whose life is finally changed for the better by a long-term sub and her own changing attitude. Now, I can’t speak to the complaint by a military kid that the military kid details weren’t accurate; I wouldn’t know. The complaints about stock characters and a story that’s been told before? Well, there are certain kinds of people everywhere, and people all over the world live their own versions of some of the same stories every day. The complaints by readers, some of them teachers, who didn’t believe that a kid could get to 6th grade without others knowing she can’t read? I wish that were the case.

I REALLY do.

A girl who’s moved around a lot? A bright girl who plays for laughs and has strategies in place for all kinds of potentially revealing situations? Depending on how many kids a teacher has in a given class, what kind of budget and extra resources are available, what kind of assessments are given, how the student’s and teacher’s personalities interact…it’s unfortunately very possible, now matter how much we don’t want it to be. Hunt’s story isn’t perfect, perhaps–the pacing and journey are perhaps not fully realistic, and I wondered about Ally’s mom’s lack of awareness–but it’s still a poignant story of overcoming and growth, and those are my happy place. (Add in an inspiring teacher, based loosely on the author’s own experience? I am ALL OVER that.) If you (or your kiddos) enjoy Patricia Polacco or Rob Buyea, then I promise you–this book is for you.