The thing about Georgie Bishop is: he’s a dwarf. Well, that’s one thing about Georgie. The point of the book is that there’s a lot more to Georgie than just his being a dwarf, even though that’s definitely part of who he is. Georgie is also a dog walker, an actor, a song writer, Andy’s best friend, and he’s about to become a big brother.

If I were pairing books, something I have a tendency to do, I would pair this first novel by NYC author Lisa Graff with The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies, a book I wrote about a few days ago. Both books feature a fight between best friends and business partners, sibling ribalry, and an emphasis on capitalizing on your own gifts and talents. Add a good plot and interesting characters in both books and just the right tone and vocabulary for upper elementary grade readers, and you have a couple of winning stories.

I liked the little notes at the beginning of chapters in The Thing About Georgie about what Georgie can and can’t do. I liked the surprise at the end of the book when it’s revealed just who is narrating at least part of the story. I liked the fact that Georgie’s parents are involved in the story and in his life, unusual for children’s fiction. (I suppose it’s easier to get rid of the adults and just write about kids) I also liked Georgie, a normal kid, who still knows that he has special challenges and is determined to just get on with it.

One part of the book was a little odd. Georgie’s friend’s grandmother, who speaks only Italian, takes Georgie and another kid out into the country, and they get lost. I was never sure where the grandmother thought she was driving them in the first place, nor why an Italian grandmother who spoke no English would have a driver’s license. Or maybe she didn’t have one. Anyway, that section was strange, but designed to show that Georgie was resourceful and good at solving problems in spite of his physical limitations.

Lisa Graff has written a fine book for all children who are curious and who are thinking about what it means to grow up. The dwarfism thing, if you’re interested in that, is a bonus.

From Lisa Graff’s website:

Q: Are you a dwarf?
A: Nope

Q: Why did you decide to write about a dwarf?
A: I wanted to write about someone who was different from everyone around him, in an obvious, physical way. Dwarfism is a particularly unsusual condition in that many dwarfs are born to parent of average height, which meant that Georgie would be unique not only within his community but within his family as well.

Lisa Graff’s blog.

Other reviews of The Thing About Georgie:

Shelf Elf

MotherReader

Kelly at Big A little a

What is it about Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller that is so fascinating to children, especially, but also to many adults? I remember being intrigued with the idea of a girl who could neither hear nor see, who was completely cut off from communication with even the members of her own family. I suppose the whole area of communication and perception is compelling since so much of what it means to be human is bound up in the ability to communicate and to make connections with other people. (It’s the same reason that I’m always interested in reading about the lives and experiences of those who are caught in the world of autism.)

Miss Spitfire is the fictionalized story of how Annie Sullivan taught Helen Keller to communicate, to understand words through finger-spelling and then to understand meaning. Annie, whose background with an alcoholic father and a tubercular brother has made her stubborn and resilient if nothing else, needs all her strength and tenacity to teach Helen, a child who has been indulged and babied and taught nothing. When Annie comes to teach her, Helen doesn’t even understand that there is a world of words and ideas to which she has been denied access. The story moves slowly, as Helen’s awakening came slowly, but inexorably toward the climactic scene where Helen finally understands that the motions of her teacher’s fingers in her hand have meaning, that she can ask questions and give answers and relate to others through the magic of words.

The book is based on primary documents, Annie Sullivan’s letters, Helen’s autobiography, a biography of Annie Sulllivan written by a friend three years before her death. Although the author, Sarah Miller, has added thoughts and feelings to the story that are not recorded, the book remains true to the factual events and to the personalities of the two protagonists. Annie Sullivan was a spitfire, and her pupil was a spoiled and wild hellion of a child. The methods that Annie Sullivan used to reach Helen Keller and give her the gift of communication were not exactly violent, but would never be countenanced nowadays. Miss Sullivan’s goal for Helen was first obedience so that she could then begin to learn, and since teacher and student could not communicate through words or even pictures, the only way to make Helen obedient was to physically force her to behave. As I said, Miss Sullivan’s methods wouldn’t go over too well in our love-means-permissiveness culture.

I think kids might be disturbed by how angry and passionate Annie Sullivan became with her pupil, Helen Keller, but they might also learn that anger can sometimes be channeled and controlled and its energy used to bring about change. The book uses a rich vocabulary, and it isn’t written with slow readers in mind. But for those children, girls especially, who become enthralled with the story of Helen Keller and want to read all there is to read about her, Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller is a fine choice.

Miss Spitfire has been nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction.

I have read this book, and I think it rocks! It starts out with him (the wimpy kid) saying that it is a journal and that he told his mom not to get one with the word “diary” mentioned anywhere in it. The book is about a boy named Greg Hefley. He loves video games and whenever he is grounded from them he sneaks a game to his friend Rowley’s house and plays it there. I guess that you could call this guy a… how should I put it… well he is very… moronic. Of course, I can’t really say that because he doesn’t do much that would make him a moron and he usually is the one, in his journal of course, calling other people morons. He has a brother named Rodrick. Rodrick has a band called “Loded Diper”. Of course, that isn’t how you spell it, and if you told Rodrick that, it would be news to him! Later in the book, he gets a job as a school paper cartoon writer. He and Rowley were going to use a comic called “Zoo-Wee Mama!”. They gave up on that one and used a comic called “Creightin the Cretin”. This book is very funny, and I hope that everyone else who reads it loves it as much as I did!

Note from Mom: This review was written by ten year old Karate Kid. The management is not responsible for the use of the word “moron” in the review. In fact, I told someone that it is not polite or kind to call anyone a moron or a cretin, even a fictional character.