Saturday, February 17, 2018

Macy McMillan and the Rainbow Goddess by Shari Green - ADVISABLE

Green, Shari Macy McMillan and the Rainbow Goddess, 234 pages. Pajama Press, 2017. $10 Language: G (0 swears, 0 ‘f’); Mature Content: G; Violence: G.

It’s the end of sixth grade and 12-year-old Macy’s world is falling apart.  She is in a fight with her best friend Olivia, who is the only one to really speak sign with deaf Macy, and with a genealogy project due at the end of the year, Macy is forced to work alone.  Her mother is about to get married, and this means there is a horrible For Sale sign on their house, she really doesn’t want to break up her team of just she and her mom.  How can she stop the wedding?  Macy’s mother has volunteered her to help 85 year-old Iris Gillan - the next door neighbor - sort all of her books because Iris is moving into a retirement home.  The book sorting becomes therapeutic - Iris is very interesting and keeps a notebook where she can write for Macy the stories about why she is keeping some of the books; Iris also makes an effort to learn to finger spell.

This book in verse is the middle school Schneider Award winner, and is a sweet read.  Full of lessons learned from people Iris has met as well as books she has read, this is full of titles named dropped (I love books that do that)! A quick read for either the upper elementary or middle school student.  I love the diversity - yes, Macy is deaf, but the disability doesn’t drive the story.  A great story of empathy.

EL - ESSENTIAL  MS - ADVISABLE  Lisa Librarian

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