By Kate DiCamillo
4RBooks: 4/6, grades 3-6
Amazon rating: 4.5/5, grade level 3-7
Good Reads: 3.76/5
Common Sense Media: 4/5, age 8+
226 pages
Synopsis:
“Every story is a love story.” That is a favorite saying of Ferris Wilkey’s grandmother, Charisse. Ferris’s real name is Emma Phineas but since she was born under a Ferris wheel, that became her nickname. She lives with her mom and dad, grandmother, and little sister, Pinky. Her best friend Billy Jackson comes over all the time to play the piano.
It is the summer between fourth and fifth grade and things have gotten interesting at Ferris’s home. Her uncle Ted is living in the basement working on a history of the world painting. Her sister wants to be an outlaw. Her father thinks there are raccoons in the attic, and Ferris’s grandmother is sure that she is seeing a ghost. Grandma Charisse is also struggling physically with a weak heart. And Ted’s wife Shirley has given Ferris a perm.
Grandma believes that the ghost is waiting for the chandelier to be lit which will bring her lost loved one home. Ferris and Billy get the candles and with Uncle Ted’s help, light the chandelier. A number of friends are invited to a very special dinner with unexpected results.
Parental Guidance: medium-low
Death is a recurring theme throughout the book. The grandmother is suffering from heart failure and eventually dies at the end of the story. The grandmother claims that she has seen a ghost in the house, a young woman whose husband never came home from WWII. Billy’s mother died in childbirth.
Ferris’s little sister Pinky is going through an extreme rebellious stage. She wants to be a bank robber and after an attempt, is picked up by the police and held until someone comes to get her. Later, she steals pliers from the local hardware store and pulls out two of her teeth. Toward the end of the story, she gets fascinated by Houdini and locks herself in a trunk, passing out before she is finally rescued.
Ferris and Billy’s fourth grade teacher is suffering through depression after the recent death of her husband.
Twice Ferris believes that her conscious is leaving her body, and that she can look down on what is happening in the house.
Recommendation:
This is a very typical Kate DiCamillo novel in the same vein as Because of Winn Dixie, Raymie Nightingale, and Louisiana’s Way Home. It’s a small-town slice of life story with unique characters encountering unusual situations. Though death is a recurrent theme, it’s not an overtly sad story. There is also hope, encouragement, and love.
I appreciated the fact that the characters are fourth graders. As a former fourth grade teacher now doing this blog, I haven’t come across many books with 10-year-old leads. Chapter books cater more toward preteens and early teens.
I liked the book, though I wouldn’t call it a scintillating read. I think it will be a hit and miss with children as an independent read. I think teachers could use this as a classroom read, especially because of the emphasis on vocabulary words, what they mean, and how they enhance what you are trying to say or think.
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