Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks, Gita Varadarajan

Rating: WARTY!

Now I concede that 'Varadarajan' is an amazing name that would probably take Weeks to pronounce (see what I did there?), but I can't get with the blurb. "As Ravi struggles to find his place at his new school, he discovers an unlikely ally in Joe, the class bully’s other target." Thus is yet another novel that teaches kids that they're on their own, no adult, least of all a teacher, will help them. No wonder Monty Kirkus's Fly-ass Circus loved it.

So B. It by Sarah Weeks

Title: So B. It
Author: Sarah Weeks
Publisher: Harper Collins
Rating: WORTHY!

Audio book beautifully read by Cherry Jones.

This was an audio book version of a story about Heidi Demuth's desire to learn the truth of her own origins - an origin which isn't so mysterious because it rapidly becomes obvious from whence she hails once she starts to dig into it. What's not so obvious is the reason for the secrecy and the reason she was kept from that knowledge, and it's a sad truth that she learns. It all begins with her mom's uttering of the nonsense word "Soof". Mom doesn't have a very large vocab. Heidi knows all of the words and what they mean; however, Soof is unique and necessitates an investigation.

The story is beautifully told and beautifully read. Heidi is 12 and lives with her mentally disabled mother. She and her mom are helped in her day-to-day life by her next door neighbor, Bernadette, who Heidi calls Bernie. Bernie can only help because she can get into their apartment through on old and previously disused connecting door. If she tries to go out into the hallway in their apartment block to walk next door that way, she freezes up and collapses, becoming all-but catatonic. Heidi thinks this problem is named angora phobia which causes her some confusion...!

One day, playing a memory card game, Bernie discovers that Heidi is astoundingly lucky. She can match every pair in the face-down cards, first time, every time. She can also win money on the slot machines, which is how she purchases the ticket to travel from Reno, in Nevada, where she lives, to Liberty, in New York state, where she believes her mother was once resident in the Hilltop Home for the mentally challenged.

Using her luck, Heidi is able to casually 'partner' herself up with various people on the three-day trip so that she always looked like she was traveling with someone, such as Georgia Sweet or Alice Willinsky. When she arrives at hilltop, she meets a guy named Elliot, who says to her, "Soof". It's not long before Heidi discovers her true relationship to Thurman Hill, the irascible and unhelpful proprietor of the Hilltop home, and to Elliot himself.

This quite short story, and though very sad in some ways, is charming, and warmly told, especially in audio book format. I recommend it. And no, the cover has zero to do with the story. It's just another example of Big Publishing™ being completely clueless when it comes to dealing decently with authors.