There, in Emerald, far from home, with Fish storming his storm and The Great and Powerful Ozzie knocked down to size inside the diner, I was starting to feel low on heart, and my brains and bravery weren't so sure either. This passage highlights the rhythm of her voice and features some of the Oz fun-it's the only time, I think, that Mibs references it directly: There are allusions and references to The Wizard of Ozthroughout, which in less-capable hands could have felt hokey or derivative or gimmicky or distracting, but, due to Ingrid Law's talent, those references just reinforced that Classic American Adventure feel and made Mibs' journey A Part of Something Bigger. The roadtrip, the rhythm, the choice of words, the voice, the interactions along the way-everything was just. She sounded-and the book as a whole felt-like a Classic American Adventure. Never at all over-the-top or forced or look-at-me-with-my-amazing-literary-pyrotechnics. Mibs' voice had a fantastic rhythm and her creative use of language always felt right. It surprised me, again and again-I'd think that I had it figured out, and then she'd throw a curveball-to the point where I realized that I really didn't know how it would all turn out, even right down to the last few pages. Ingrid Law had me from that first sentence, and I have nothing but praise for this book. But her unexpected roadtrip on a pink bus-along with two of her brothers and the preacher's two kids-may prove her otherwise. Mibs has been waiting for almost thirteen years to discover what her savvy will turn out to be.īut then, the night before her birthday, her Poppa is in a horrible car accident, her mother and oldest brother leave town to be with him in the hospital, and Mibs is left to find her savvy on her own. On that day, their power first manifests. Thirteenth birthdays are special in any family, but in the Beaumont family they are especially special. When my brother Fish turned thirteen, we moved to the deepest part of inland because of the hurricane and, of course, the fact that he'd caused it.

And everyone went bananas about it and proclaimed their undying love and I'm sure I have at least three copies of it in the house, but I never did get around to reading it.¹īut then last week, I got a package that contained a copy of Savvy and a copy of Scumble, and I was feeling like something geared a bit younger than usual, so I read the first sentence:

Okay, so, like, two years ago, Savvy came out.

Savvy scumble