Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Generally when I talk about a book having all the feels, it involves a dramatic scene or a significant event somewhere. Lisa Graff’s Absolutely Almost, however, is a different sort of experience altogether; its feels are as quietly significant as its protagonist. Albie is the kind of kid who takes longer to understand things than most. His reading is slow, math feels impossible, and he doesn’t easily perceive ulterior motives. (His clearly kinetic learning style–the hardest to teach to in a group setting–jumps out at my teacher self.) His parents make plenty of mistakes with him, some of them truly painful, and yet they love him and improve over the course of the novel. The catalyst for the story is Albie’s new nanny, referred to with hilarious accuracy by one Goodreads reviewer as being “perilously close to a manic pixie dream babysitter.” Calista sees Albie for himself and does her best to be what he needs in a caregiver, although she doesn’t always go about it wisely. Albie’s best friend also sees Albie for himself, but Erlan’s family (with its two sets of triplets) has become the subject of a reality show, and so the logistics of their friendship have grown more complicated. There is no one pivotal scene here, no dramatic reveal that changes everything, and yet Absolutely Almost is the tale of a boy’s life as it quietly grows and changes for the better–not easier, but better. It is a celebration of kindness as well as an acknowledgement of the different kinds of struggles we face, and I would honestly recommend it to everyone.

On the home front, our intended trip to Idaho this weekend was canceled due to vomit; yesterday I took the three younger kids mini-golfing for an outing, and we’re headed to Logan for the day on Monday to spend time with the great nephew we’re missing out on at the moment. Things happen, right? In the meantime, it’s 10:34 on a Saturday morning and I’m trying to decide how much longer to let the remaining sleepers sleep. What would YOU do?