Savvy

Mibs Beaumont is about to turn thirteen years old when her world changes.  Mibs knows her 13th birthday will be crazy anyway - when the kids in the Beaumont family turn thirteen, their "savvy" shows up.  Their savvies are like special powers, sort of, that appear on this birthday.  Mibs one brother can cause hurricanes, make it rain, and blow the wind in your face.  Her other brother is electric and powers everything in the Beaumont home.  Mibs has no idea what he savvy will be.

She's nervous anyway, but then she gets some bad news:  her father has been badly hurt in a terrible car accident.  The day before her birthday, her mother and brother Rocket go to be with Poppa and Mibs and the rest of the children are left on their own.  The preacher's wife in town feels sorry for Mibs and throws her a party at church, but Mibs just isn't feeling it.  She likes hanging out will Will, the preacher's son, but no one else really.  That's when she decides to run away and get to her father.  That's the only place she wants to be anyway--with Poppa.  She isn't alone, though.  Five kids (Mibs, her two brothers, Will, and Bobbie, the preacher's sixteen-year-old daughter) end up on a pink bus belonging to a bible salesman.  They think they are headed toward Salina, the city where Poppa is...but they end up driving off in the opposite direction.  Mibs now has to figure out what to do, what her savvy is, and how she can get to her dad.

This story was just sweet.  I liked the characters.  They were all colorful and unique.  The adventure on the bus was fun.  I definitely think this book is a little young for my taste, but it's a really sweet story.  I enjoyed watching Mibs figure herself out and how the kids, who didn't really know each other all that well, became close on the bus because they had to.  It's a story about family and friends and finding out who you really are.  I enjoyed the read, but would recommend it to middle schoolers and maybe ninth graders.