YA fiction
"The night my mother volunteered me to pass out gingerbread rabbits to my brother and other athletes at the Special Olympics Moonlight Ball because she and Dad were too busy picking up dog poop, I knew my family would never be normal again."
This opening line of Melissa Hart's Daisy Woodworm Changes the World in a for sure candidate for best novel first sentence evah!!! It kindled my curiosity which is what you want the first sentence to do. And the rest of the book beautifully lived up to its promise.
Family life is changing rapidly for Daisy, a future entomologist, and her big brother, Squirrel (a nickname acquired when Daisy initially couldn't pronounce Sorrel). Their Mom had rocked a "normal" none to five with their dad had held down the fort at home. Now they're working together to start a business which means they're away a lot of the time. Not only do Daisy and Squirrel have to take on a lot of the cooking and cleaning...
...they have parents doing work that would gross out a lot of their peers. Mom and Dad are hired by their clients to scoop up canine by products. They ride around in a van which vividly announces their profession and smells like...
...I'll leave that to your imagination. That would be cringeworthy when I was in eighth grade which was well before social media.
When Daisy returns to school her teacher announces Project Change the World. Each student will work on an initiative that will make the world better for at least one person. The end products will be written and oral presentations. The latter prospect terrifies Daisy who has been bullied for her lisp.
Squirrel, who has a real grasp of and fascination with men's clothing styles, wants to become a social media fashion influencer. Daisy decides that her project will be enabling him to do so. There's one very big hitch. After an incident involving trolls their parents have decided no social media presence EVAH for Squirrel. Where they advertise their business on the internet it won't be easy to keep them in the dark.
And then there's Miguel, that very cute boy who, with his best friend, bullied Daisy back in elementary school. His newly arrived cousin is in Special Olympics with Squirrel. His project is save that year's year's games which have been cancelled for lack of money. He could be a big help with Daisy's project. But how far can she really trust him?
As someone with a cognitively challenged sibling, I love how Squirrel is a complex human being with strengths and weaknesses. I also love how his need for agency in his close to adult life is asserted. Not surprisingly Hart grew up with a brother with Down Syndrome. It gives her narrative refreshing authenticity.
On a purrrsonal note, one of the regrets of my earlier life is that I couldn't talk Mom into letting Harriet participate in Special Olympics. I thought it was a way for her to do something she could be proud of and make friends who faced similar challenges. Mom was insulted with my suggestion. The other kids were born that way. Harriet would somehow work her way back to normal. This denial would come back to bite her when Harriet fell in with the religious fundamentalists who were the only ones to accept and value her.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
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