reaching for sun

Ragina Shearer
5653 Multicultural Children’s and Young Adult Literature
Book Review – Inclusive Literature

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Zimmer, Tracie Vaughn. 2007. REACHING FOR SUN. New York, New York.
ISBN 10:1-59990-037-8.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Seventh grade is hard enough for any seventh grader; Josie must also cope with Cerebral Palsy, a too busy mother, no friends, and houses springing up all around her once beautiful farm. “If being assigned to room 204 wasn’t bad enough, now the new occupational therapist (Mrs, Swaim) appears to escort me to her torture chamber.” A geeky scientist boy, Jordan, moves in to one of the new houses and the two become friends. “He pulls out his plant guidebook to search for names I already know. “How do you know the name of every plant? I shrug. Always have.” They conduct experiments on plants and at the ponds and he truly sees Josie for the intelligent person she is despite her handicap. He asks what she hates the most about her disabilities and praises her intelligence. “What’s the hardest part? I don’t hesitate: Everyone thinking I’m retarded. But Josie, you know tons of stuff! Anybody who talks to you knows that.”

Grandma always sees past Josie’s disabilities and teaches her things anyway. At Christmas they cut “the fruit into wedges, and then piercing them with large paper clips…Huge pinecones get smeared with peanut butter…sprinkled with sunflower seeds and bird feed…” which they hang in the tree out front for the birds. While Moma only seems to see her disabilities, “Mom registered me for a summer clinic so speech and occupational therapists can test their latest methods on me.”

Jordan goes off to a summer scientist camp. Grandma becomes ill and Josie confesses to her mom she hates therapy and has been skipping the summer camp. The struggles and triumphs will captivate all readers, especially in or near this age group.


3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)
This book of free-verse poems is written for seventh grade and up. This book will appeal to those with disabilities but Josie’s cry to be heard and understood will reach a wide array of readers. Reluctant readers will find an appeal in the easy reading of the short verse chapters. The pages are filled with a lot of empty white space which is freeing to a struggling reader. The story is heartwarming and capturing without the use of a lot of words. The comparisons of gardens to Josie express her feelings of being a misfit. “It’s the only place where I don’t stick out like a dandelion in a purple petunia patch, and I like Jordan seeing me in a place I belong…”

Grandma becomes ill and is in the hospital. Jordan is away at a Science camp, Josie must find inner strength to deal with her everyday life and tell her mom the truth about her own camp.
Josie’s busy mom and she are at a stand off when she admits she has been skipping physical therapy camp and refuses to go anymore. “I’m sick of spending all my time working on what’s wrong with me. I don’t want to be pruned or pinched back like a wilting petunia.” After several days of silence Josie compares the kudzu vine that grows and shadows and prevents growth to “The way Mom and I don’t talk out what happened grows between us until the air feels choked like those trees.” Finally after Grandma comes home, Josie and her mom seem to grow closer. “Mom’s cool fingers tilt my chin up at her. I believe in you Josie. And I press her words in the pages of my heart like a first spring bloom.”


4. REVIEW EXCERPT (S)
Schneider Family Book Award

BOOKLIST: “As if seventh grade weren't enough of a challenge for anyone, Josie also struggles with cerebral palsy, social isolation, a mom she needs more time and support from, and monster bulldozers that are carving up the countryside to build huge homes around her family's old farmhouse.”
HORNBOOK: “But no one at her school bothers to see beyond her disability until a boy named Jordan, a guileless, hyperintelligent science nerd, moves into her neighborhood and marvels at her plant knowledge.”
HORNBOOK Starred: “Garden imagery wends its way through this eloquent free-verse novel about a seventh-grade girl with cerebral palsy.”
KIRKUS REVIEW Starred: “Readers living with a disability or trying to understand others seem like the target audience, but Josie's voice has a universal appeal.”
LIBRARY MEDIA CONNECTION: “She lives with her Gran, who is opinionated and wonderfully oblivious to her limitations, and her mom, who seems to think too much of them.”
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: “She and her grandmother are both passionate about plants and gardening, and Zimmer does a nice job integrating botanical images throughout the novel.”


5. CONNECTIONS
This free style chapter book of poems that tell a captivating story will touch the hearts of the disabled as well as other readers facing their own challenges.

Other books written by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer that deal with middle age children facing challenges include:
Zimmer, Tracie Vaughn. 42 MILES. ISBN 10: 0-618-61867-8
Zimmer, Tracie Vaughn. THE FLOATING CIRCUS 10: 1-59990-185-4
Zimmer, Tracie Vaughn. SKETCHES FROM A SPY TREE. ISBN 10: 0-618-23479-9