Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

2009 Newbery Honor Book

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Two girls mock a girl named “Mississippi” several times by calling her “Missy-Pissy”. The same girls call her a freak.  Two women verbally abuse a man repeatedly. They call him dim-witted, useless fool, half-baked idiot, namby-pamby, defective dolt, stupid, dunderhead, dimwit, dumbbell, crybaby, senseless, nitwit.  A man yells “shut-up!”  A girl calls another a “birthday brat” and her brother tells her to “get frittered”.  One woman calls another a “scrawny old chicken gizzard”.  A woman calls a child a “mangy, snooping , old dog”.

Sexual Content:  A girl feels bashful in a swimsuit. She feels a “jig shy of jaybird naked”.  She describes another girl as being “filled-in in her bikini”.  A girl runs away from a boy and he comes after her. The girl’s brother misunderstands the situation, which is innocent. He yells, “What did you do to my sister?”  A boy kisses a girl.  She describes it as, “quick and awkward with a taste of chlorine and salt, like maybe he’d just slipped and bumped his face into mine.”  A girl says she thinks a certain boy would be “fun to kiss”.   A man gives a woman a “long hard kiss on her mouth”.  The woman kisses him back with a “zest and a zing and a zeal.”

Violence:  One boy punches another and he punches back.  A boy bites a man on the leg. The man threatens a young boy with a pie knife. Two kids shove the man down.  A woman throws multiple objects at a man.  Three kids hold down a woman to draw a smiley face on her foot. One girl shoves a wad of bubble-gum in her mouth to stop her from screaming.

Adult Themes:  Most parent/child relationships are loving. One parent/child relationship is verbally abusive and the other is slightly contentious due to the teenage years.  A girlfriend and mother are verbally abusive to their boyfriend/son.  A young girl and boy develop an attraction for each other.  A young girls sees a situation as her chance to “show God how good I could be…that I was worth some reconsidering on His part.”

Synopsis

Just before a young girl turns 13 and discovers her “savvy”, her father gets into a serious car accident and is hospitalized in a nearby town. She believes her new savvy can save him and stows away on a Bible delivery bus with a few of her friends to try and go save him.

Potential Discussion Topics:  Family, dying, bullying, young love, growing up, finding your talents

©2010 The Literate Mother