She had me at British Baking Show. Ellie is an aspiring baker and is inspired by Mary Berry, Julia Child and other baking greats. She is also confined to a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy and lives with her divorced mother. The two of them move to a trailer in Oklahoma to help Mema take care of grandpa after his dementia symptoms cause a couple of dangerous accidents. Now she is the new kid in a wheelchair at a small middle school coming from the wrong side of town -- the trailer park. Spunky Ellie may be down, but she is not out. With the help of her two new friends, Coralee and Bert (short for Robert), she will learn the joys of not being normal and discovering who she really is. This book reveals much about living with a disability without being just about that. Ellie's voice is authentic and will provide a much needed window for middle grade kids to living with CP. There is something for everyone in here: baking, therapy, mini golf, pageantry, fishing, and more. As promised on the cover, there is most definitely PIE! ( )

Excellent -- Ellie is at the age for chafing and independence, and is feeling isolated in her home in Tennessee. Moving to Oklahoma to help take care of her grandfather turns out to be just the right sort of change to bring about new friends, new challenges and new adventures. Sensitive to the fears of adults caring for young people with CP and brilliant at honoring the kids. Ellie is a charmer and full of opinions. Her family is excellent and loving and struggling. Her new friends are a hoot.
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Recommended Ages: Gr. 4-7

Plot Summary: Ellie's grandma is having a harder and harder time taking care of Grandpa, so Ellie's mom decides they need to move in with them to help. This is hard, but it's also hard to navigate a trailer and old school building in a wheelchair, which is what Ellie has to do. Then why does she prefer to stay rather than going back to her old life?

Setting: Oklahoma

Characters:
Ellie - loves to bake, makes up he own recipes and tries ones she finds on the internet
Coralee - neighbor in the trailer park, Ellie's friend
Bert - Ellie's friend

Recurring Themes: cerebral palsy, friendship, family, dementia

Controversial Issues: none

Personal Thoughts: Very well written, engaging.

Genre: realistic fiction

Pacing: medium-fast
Characters: very well developed
Frame:
Storyline:

Activity:

Ellie has cerebral palsy and gets around in a wheelchair. At school, an aide works with her and Ellie’s one friend is Emma Claire who also has CP. Ellie loves to bake. She watches The Great British Bake-Off and enjoys trying out new recipes. One day she would love to compete in the bake-off that her Mema has told her about. Ellie’s grandfather has Alzheimer’s disease and is worsening. Ellie’s mother decides they will stay with Mema and Grandpa in Oklahoma to help out for a few months. Eufaula, Oklahoma, isn’t as accessible for Ellie but there she finds good friends in Coralee and Bert. Ellie is a spitfire, no self-pity (most of the time), very self-motivated. Mouthy in an opinionated, off the cuff way. An informal voice, brisk pacing. Relatable characters. ( )

I will just say straight out that I am not a fan of Wonder, although I know it's extremely beloved and we own a ridiculous number of copies. So it wasn't a draw for me that Palacio had blurbed this book - is every book with a disabled character going to have to have the mark of approval of an abled person? Ahem. However. This is a really, really good book!

The story opens with a typical day for Ellie. She's eating freezer food while watching a baking show and hoping her aide doesn't call her mom. The thing is, she just needed a break and zipped out during lunch at school. But kids in wheelchairs who have CP (Cerebral Palsy) are a "health risk" and are absolutely NOT supposed to skip. Luckily for Ellie, her mom has other things to think about. Ellie's gotten her long-awaited appointment with the dr. and has finally been seizure-free long enough to go off her medication. Meanwhile, Ellie's grandfather's dementia is getting worse and her grandmother is not able to cope with him. Ellie and her mom decide to extend their Christmas vacation and stay with their grandparents until things calm down a little.

Life in the trailer park is better and worse than Ellie expects. To her surprise, she makes friends - Coralee, whose mother has left her with an elderly relative and who dreams of getting out by winning talent contests. Bert, who lives along with his dad and is a bit (ok a lot) weird. Ellie figures he's probably on the spectrum. School is a whole 'nother can of worms. The kids (and staff) treat Ellie like some kind of weird freak one moment, then ignore her the next. Nothing is set up or accessible, and the only bright spot if the gym coach who has a background in physical therapy and rehabilitation.

As Ellie makes it through bad days - her grandfather's episodes - and good days - experimenting with baking - she comes to realize that, as Coralee says, this is her new family. Ellie is a refreshing and realistic character. She's aware of her limitations, hates having to have help to go to the bathroom because the trailer is too small and inaccessible, and gets snarky and tells people off when they get on her nerves. But she's also growing as a person, becoming aware of the issues faced by other people and of the challenges in and around her family. She sees her mom from a mature, almost adult viewpoint, understanding how much she's sacrificed to care for her and how difficult it is for her to handle her grandfather's decline, while still having moments as a kid. She secretly fears being put in an institution, like the nursing home her grandfather will eventually have to go to, and even when she understands why her mother is stressed she sometimes just can't let go of her own plans and problems. In other words, Ellie is a typical middle schooler; she's full of potential, has plenty of additional challenges to handle, and does her best to deal with what she's got.

In the end, there's no perfect ending; everyone still has problems they have to deal with and that affect their daily life. There's no moment when an all-school assembly realizes how Ellie has changed all their lives and inspired them all to be better people (yes, this me being extremely sarcastic). But Ellie has hope for the future, friends, and feels part of a community in a way she never has before. Sumner has a son with cerebral palsy and also consulted children with disabilities in writing this book. The main feedback was that they loved the character of Ellie, who "tells it like it is."

Verdict: An absolute must-have for every library. Aside from the rarity of a main protagonist with a disability, written realistically! this is a funny, touching, and strong middle grade novel that any kid who loves realistic fiction will devour. Highly recommended.

ISBN: 9781534442559; Published October 2019 by Atheneum; Review copy provided by publisher and donated to the library; 2nd copy purchased for the library