Fiction - Social Issues, Fiction - Schools & Friendship, Fiction - Family Life

Gracie's Girl

Name: Gracie's Girl
Author: Ellen Wittlinger
ISBN: 9780689849602

by Ellen Wittlinger, Hamlin

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Overview

YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT — OR WHO — WILL TOUCH YOUR HEART.

Now that Bess Cunningham is in middle school, she's determined to get noticed. With her new glasses, her wild thrift-store clothes, and her job as stage manager for the school play, she's sure her days of being invisible are over.

Being forced to volunteer with her parents at the local soup kitchen doesn't exactly fit into Bess's popularity plans, especially since she finds the place so creepy. But when she meets Gracie Jarvis Battle, an elderly homeless woman, Bess can't help but feel compassion for her. Bess grows more involved with trying to feed and shelter the older woman, but as the weather turns colder and Gracie grows thinner, Bess begins to wonder — will her help be enough?

As she starts middle school, Bess volunteers to work on the school musical in hopes of fitting in, but when she and a friend get to know an elderly homeless woman, Bess changes her mind about what is really important.

Synopsis

It's bad enough that her mother gives all her attention to a community soup kitchen, but now Bess Cunningham's best friend, Ethan, wants to volunteer there too. Bess has made so much progress in her attempt to gain popularity at her new middle school—she's got a wild new wardrobe and is working on the school play—that the idea of helping out seems lamer than ever. That is, until Grace Jarvis Battle comes into her life.

Gracie is a sweet elderly woman who is not unlike Bess's grandmothers—except Gracie lives on the street and eats out of Dumpsters. Because of Gracie, Bess quickly becomes involved with the soup kitchen. When her mother spearheads an effort to establish a permanent shelter for women, Bess knows that this is the best way to help Gracie. But the shelter won't be ready until Thanksgiving. With it getting colder, Bess and Ethan try to help Gracie on their own. Will it be enough?

In examining how homelessness can affect anyone, acclaimed author Ellen Wittlinger puts a human face on an all-too-common problem.

About the Author:
Ellen Wittlinger is the author of the teen novels What's in a Name, Hard Love (an ALA Michael L. Printz Honor book and a Lambda Literary Award winner), Noticing Paradise, and Lombardo's Law. She has a bachelor's degree from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. A former children's librarian, she lives with her husband and two children in Swampscott, Massachusetts.

Publishers Weekly

At the onset of her sixth-grade year, narrator Bess's campaign to be "cool" includes reinventing her wardrobe around some funky vintage clothes. It's while sifting through such items in a thrift shop that she first meets Gracie, a homeless woman, and later, while helping serve Sunday dinner at a homeless shelter (at her parents' insistence), Bess sees her again. Gracie inspires Bess to rethink her priorities ("It made me kind of sick to think about her sleeping outside someplace, her big, old shoes poking into the sidewalk"); she becomes less concerned with her own social status as she searches for a way to keep Gracie fed and sheltered. In this bittersweet novel, Wittlinger (Hard Love; What's in a Name) offers a convincing look at a middle schooler's awakening to social problems in her community. Although readers may sympathize with Gracie, they will likely relate more to Bess and her day-to-day trials: getting snubbed by the popular crowd, finding out the boy she likes is more interested in her best friend and fighting for the attention of her charity-minded parents. Unfortunately, the book's strong political statement tends to overpower the subtler, equally relevant message regarding Bess's internal maturation. Ages 8-12. (Nov.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

About the Author, Ellen Wittlinger

Ellen Wittlinger is the critically acclaimed author of the teen novels Love & Lies: Marisol's Story, Parrotfish, Blind Faith, Sandpiper, Heart on My Sleeve, Zigzag, and Hard Love (an American Library Association Michael L. Printz Honor Book and a Lambda Literary Award winner), and the middle-grade novel Gracie's Girl. She has a bachelor's degree from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. A former children's librarian, she lives with her husband in Haydenville, Massachusetts.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Sixth-grader Bess is on a campaign to be "cool," but she becomes less concerned with her own social status as she searches for a way to keep a homeless woman fed and sheltered. "A convincing look at a middle schooler's awakening to social problems," said PW. Ages 8-12. (Apr.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Children's Literature

Sixth-grader Bess wants to impress and make friends with some of the popular kids at her new middle school. Wearing eccentric outfits does get attention, but not necessarily the kind she wants. She is also sure that helping out at the soup kitchen where her mom volunteers and being friends with Gracie, the bag lady, would be considered uncool if school chums find out. Volunteering to be stage manager of the school play will better meet her popularity goals. So, with her friends, Ethan and Janette, she works on the play¾and hides Gracie in the school shed until the new women's shelter can provide a bed for her. As Bess basks in the glow of the success of her first play, she discovers that Gracie is dead. The book explores childhood friendships, the need to fit in, first crushes, and some realistic ways children can be involved in social issues, making this a quick and compelling read for young girls who want to make a difference. 2000, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $16.00. Ages 9 to 12. Reviewer: Chris Gill

VOYA

In this new offering from Printz Honor Award-winning author Wittlinger, Bess Cunningham is entering middle school, a traumatic experience she seeks to make easier by being different. Different for her entails wearing thrift shop clothes, working on the school play, and attempting to hang out with the popular crowd. Try as she might to walk another path, Bess and her best friend, Ethan, become involved in the homeless shelter at which her parents spend countless hours volunteering. They particularly interact with a homeless woman named Grace Jarvis Battle, or Gracie. Through her experience with Gracie, Bess becomes better acquainted with her parents and herself. An interesting and quick-moving story, this novel is predictable throughout and a bit preachy as most of the characters extol the virtues of helping the homeless—an admirable lesson, but there are probably few teens like Bess and Ethan who spend so much time volunteering in a soup kitchen of their own volition. Although this title might not have broad teen appeal, it also might not need a lot of pushing. It is an average preteen-middle school read—a fairly good one at that. Wittlinger does a fine job of addressing a potentially sensitive issue and gives her readers something to think about. VOYA CODES: 3Q 3P M (Readable without serious defects; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8). 2000, Simon & Schuster, 186p, $16. Ages 11 to 14. Reviewer: Nicole A. Cooke

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-Bess Cunningham isn't a kid anymore. She is in the sixth grade, and she's ready to be admired and possibly even envied as a trendsetting sensation. She thinks she's just about figured out how to redefine and personally epitomize the word "cool." However, she finds that her new persona is easier to imagine than execute. Her family really cramps her style. She can usually dismiss her moody older brother, but her parents are impossible to ignore, spending all of their free time at a local shelter and soup kitchen. Bess is sure people will find out and associate her with the eccentrics and unfortunates that rely on the shelter for subsistence. Then she meets Gracie, a sweet, sick, confused old woman who sleeps outside and eats out of garbage cans, and Bess begins to realize she doesn't know what awful is. Wittlinger's young narrator is engaging and believable. Readers will sympathize with her sometimes trifling, sometimes truly serious concerns. A school production of Bye Bye Birdie, fashion crises, and an unrequited crush round out this perceptive, realistic novel. Sporadic references to current rock groups and box-office superstars may date the book at some later time, but they help to make Gracie's predicament undeniably immediate for anyone who reads it today.-Catherine T. Quattlebaum, DeKalb County Public Library, Atlanta, GA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Personal contact with a homeless woman teaches a sixth-grade girl what values are really important. Bess Cunningham is the daughter of a social worker, who, in a nice touch, is too busy doing good works to give her daughter the affection and attention she craves. Bess is about to start middle school, and this year her goal is to shed her nerdy elementary-school persona, make new friends, and hang with the popular crowd. To get noticed, she decides to don funky thrift-store clothing—which does indeed get her noticed though not in the way she was hoping—and volunteers to be the stage manager for her school's play. An encounter with an elderly destitute lady named Gracie raises Bess's consciousness in respect to the homeless—she had regarded them as scary and unsavory—and she begins to help the addled woman, first reluctantly, then finally with her whole heart. Wittlinger does a good job of presenting the change in Bess's mindset, her growing compassion and realization that Gracie is a real person,"definitely strange, but not totally nuts or anything." The book also elucidates the broad spectrum of attitudes that exist toward the indigent, though unfortunately the author defines her characters by their position on the homeless rather than giving them unique personal flavors. After a tragedy, the book ends on a hopeful note, and Bess learns some important if predictable lessons. Earnest and well-intentioned, this should shed some light on an important social issue. (Fiction. 8-12)