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Summary
Summary
"Meet the new Ramona Quimby!" -- Entertainment Weekly
Gertie Reece Foy is 100% Not-From-Concentrate awesome. She has a daddy who works on an oil rig, a great-aunt who always finds the lowest prices at the Piggly Wiggly, and two loyal best friends. So when her absent mother decides to move away from their small town, Gertie sets out on her greatest mission yet: becoming the best fifth grader in the universe to show her mother exactly what she'll be leaving behind. There's just one problem: Seat-stealing new girl Mary Sue Spivey wants to be the best fifth grader, too. And there is simply not enough room at the top for the two of them.
From debut author Kate Beasley, and with illustrations by Caldecott Honor artist Jillian Tamaki, comes a classic tale of hope and homecoming that will empty your heart, then fill it back up again--one laugh at a time.
Author Notes
Kate Beasley holds a Masters in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives with her family in Claxton, Georgia, with two dogs, one parrot, lots of cows, and a cat named Edgar. Gertie's Leap to Greatness is her first novel.
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-Gertie Foy is on a mission to make herself the world's best fifth grader. Then she'll confront her mother, who abandoned Gertie as an infant. She also is determined to improve her grades and earn the lead in the school play. That will show everyone. Gertie is indomitable, but the plucky girl's bravado covers some insecurities. Unfortunately, a new girl, Mary Sue, upsets Gertie's big plans for success with sneaky schemes of her own. Often impulsive, Gertie battles with classmates but finds support from her loving dad, a crusty but kind great-aunt, an understanding teacher, and a loyal friend. Intrepid, despite a series of provocations, disappointments, and mistakes, in the end, Gertie puts her personal goal aside to help a needy Mary Sue. Narrator Tara Sands alternates soft, sad, and strident Southern-accented dialogue with equal ease, including moments of tongue-in-cheek humor. VERDICT With an appealing cover and useful information, plus good sound quality, this is a solid choice for elementary school libraries. A perfect companion title for readers who enjoy Beverly Cleary's Ramona Quimby, Donald Sobol's Encyclopedia Brown, and other funny, thoughtful characters. ["Sure to resonate with fans of spunky female protagonists": SLJ 5/16 review of the Farrar book.]-Barbara Wysocki, formerly at Cora J. Belden Library, Rocky Hill, CT © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Like the title character in Kate DiCamillo's Raymie Nightingale, the indefatigable Gertie Foy is determined to prove to an absent parent that leaving was a big mistake. Gertie, whose school bus passes her estranged mother's house every day, sees a For Sale sign and learns her mother intends to remarry and move. She devises a five-phase plan to become the best fifth grader ever and get her mother's attention before she departs, but Gertie's ambitions run smack into full-of-herself new student Mary Sue Spivey. First, Mary Sue steals Gertie's seat next to Jean, her best friend. Then, she steals Jean. Perhaps worst of all, Mary Sue's mother, an environmental activist, begins a campaign against offshore drilling. (Gertie's father works on an oil rig, and she lives with her Aunt Rae, who winningly sends her off each day by saying, "Give 'em hell, baby"). Given Gertie's world of hurt, debut novelist Beasley wisely interjects humor as often as possible, and Tamaki's winning illustrations add verve, perfectly capturing Gertie's indomitable spirit. Ages 8-12. Author's agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. Illustrator's agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Gertie Reece Foy lives with her great-aunt Rae in coastal Alabama while her kind and loving father, Frank, works on an oil rig. Her mother, Rachel, who left the family when Gertie was a baby, lives across town, but now theres a for-sale sign on her lawn. Before Rachel moves away, Gertie wants to become the greatest fifth grader in the whole school, world, and universe in order to prove something to Rachel and to herself: Shed show up on her mothers front porch, gleaming with greatnessand then Rachel Collins would know that Gertie Foy was one-hundred-percent, not-from-concentrate awesome and that she didnt need a mother anyway. So there. Standing in Gerties way is the rich, prissy new girl at school, whose own mother is waging an environmentalist campaign against oil rigs, and whose ambition for fifth-grade greatness is just as strong as Gerties. The busy plot -- Gertie resuscitates a frog; she helps Aunt Rae babysit a spirited five-year-old; she thinks her teacher hates her; all her classmates turn against her; she saves the class play; she gets in trouble for walking off with the school secretarys bowl of chocolates -- may not be to everyones taste, but slice-of-life fans should enjoy the homespun humor. Personality-rich illustrations by Tamaki (which skew young) help set the scene; the picture of Gertie, triumphant after dispensing with the whole bowl of chocolates, for example, speaks louder than words. elissa gershowitz (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A can-do attitude, loyal friends, and a foolproof plan prove insufficient when a seat-stealing new girl swooshes in. Gertie Reece Foy is a feisty, white fifth-grader with an indomitable spirit and a surefire plan to be the greatest fifth-grader in the "whole school, world, and universe! And that was just Phase One." A for-sale sign in front of the house where her mother lives has pushed Gertie into action. Gertie lives with her dad and aunt, and she is totally fine with that. Yep! But she wants Rachel Collins, her mother, to know exactly how wonderful, remarkable, and great she is. Almost as soon as she launches her big plan, however, blonde, white new girl Mary Sue Spivey starts throwing wrenches in it. Beasleys debut is populated with a cast of homespun characters that come alive in a tasty blend of twitches, aphorisms, and good, old-fashioned meanness. In addition to determination and an endless supply of Twinkies, she gives Gertie two good friends: Junior, who brims with nervous energy, and supersmart Jean with her extra-sharp No. 2 pencils. (Tamaki depicts the latter two as white and dark-skinned, respectively, in her charming grayscale illustrations.) Readers will wonder why Gertie's mom lives so close by but evidently has no contact with her daughter, a question that may drive some to distraction. Still, the tale of Gertie and her grab for greatness is a rich and enjoyable read, and children will relate to her heartfelt emotions. (Fiction. 10-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* First, some 20 years ago, it was the YA novel that was declared dead, only for an influx of new authors and the arrival of the Michael L. Printz Award to take the genre to unexpected heights. Because the publishing world seems to feel that if one kind of book is up, another must be down, it soon was the middle-grade novel's turn to be sent to the infirmary. Now middle-grade fiction is commonly declared edgy and groundbreaking. Yet there is, and always has been, another kind of middle-grade novel, one that pushes boundaries in quieter ways. Take Maud Hart Lovelace's series about Betsy, Tacy, and Tib, which follows the three friends growing up at the turn of the last century from ages five to marriage. In Betsy and Tacy Go over the Big Hill (1942), readers are introduced to an immigrant community that lives in Little Syria. Later, Betsy struggles with religion when she decides to become an Episcopalian, even though she knows her Baptist father will be disappointed. Or take Ramona and Her Father (1977), in which Beverly Cleary touches on something many children face what it feels like to have a father out of work. And in this year's As Brave as You, author Jason Reynolds explores the tensions between fathers, sons, and grandsons affected by the legacy of Jim Crow. Gertie's Leap to Greatness is another in this line of books that takes on real-life problems while keeping its writing true to the feelings of childhood. Gertie Reece Foy is a fifth-grader with two best friends, a father who works on an oil rig, and a mother who doesn't acknowledge her existence. When she was a baby, her mother, Rachel Collins, left to live in a house on Jones Street, never to been seen again, aside from a chance encounter at the Piggly Wiggly. But now the Jones Street house has a for-sale sign on it, and Gertie learns her mother is planning to get married and move to Mobile. Determined to do something to make Rachel Collins notice her before she departs, Gertie devises a five-phase plan to make herself the greatest fifth-grader ever. The plan's glimmering possibilities are stubbed out by the arrival of Mary Sue, the daughter of a film director making a movie in town. From here the story could have gone the predictable route, and in some ways it does. Glamorous Mary Sue thwarts Gertie and her quest for greatness at every turn and subtly prods the class to turn against their former friend (and Gertie only makes things worse). While the broad outline is familiar, however, the depth of feeling makes it unique. Gertie, bossy, bouncy, and busy, counsels herself in an internal dialogue that illuminates how a kid who gets knocked down picks herself up. What should she make of a mother who wants nothing to do with her? In the smartest kind of writing, Beasley has Mr. Foy explain to his daughter, in a way a child can understand if not entirely appreciate, why Rachel Collins left them: For her, being with them was like wearing a pair of shoes that were too tight. You could limp along for awhile, but your feet would just hurt more until you were sure that if you walked one step further in those shoes, they'd squeeze your toes off. In another interesting take on contemporary life, Gertie must deal with the notion that what her father does for a living is wrong. On Career Day, Gertie plans to move her greatness plan forward by wowing everyone with a speech about life on an oil rig. But Mary Sue and her mother, an environmental activist, speak first about the horrors of offshore drilling. The book handles the issues in a way that will make readers think about not just what it means to protect the environment, but also what it means to provide a livelihood in an imperfect world. Gertie Foy is debut author Beasley's first heroine. It's exciting to think who else is waiting down the road to push or pummel boundaries. Or even just prance through a story. That would be fine, too.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2016 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
"CHEERFUL" IS NOT A WORD I would use to describe many of my favorite books - I prefer my reading sour with a twist of misery - but Kate Beasley's debut was a welcome ray of light, as enjoyable for this middle-aged reader as I predict it will be for its middle-grade audience. You simply can't be in a bad mood when you read "Gertie's Leap to Greatness." Trust me, I tried. Gertie Reece Foy is a plain old fifth grader growing up on the shores of Alabama. She's not a tuba prodigy, a spelling bee champion or a great intellect. She doesn't have superpowers. Nor, like many other kid-lit heroines - Anne Shirley, Nancy Drew, Pippi Longstocking; the list goes on - does Gertie have a mom, or at least not one who will acknowledge her when they run into each other at the Piggly Wiggly. Her mother, Rachel, moved across town when Gertie was a baby, leaving her to be raised by a great-aunt and her dad, who works on an offshore oil rig. Welcome to the storm cloud at the heart of Beasley's otherwise sunny story: Rachel's house is for sale, she's moving to Mobile and Gertie is determined to give her a reason to stay put. Speaking of leaps, I did wonder about the logistics of a mother living so close to her kid and not having any relationship with her, not even over an occasional ice cream cone. But I went with it, and you will, too. Gertie embarks on a campaign to become the greatest fifth grader in the world, a daughter worth noticing. Her mission includes acing the first-day-of-school speech contest at Carroll Elementary, becoming "a genius with a capital G" and landing the lead in the class play. Unfortunately - and naturally - Gertie runs into obstacles with a capital O. Her biggest problem is Mary Sue Spivey, a new girl who seems to have moved from Los Angeles with the express purpose of throwing Gertie off course. (Actually, her dad is filming a movie in the area.) Mary Sue is an entertaining hybrid of two classically smug villains: Nellie Oleson, of "Little House on the Prairie" fame, and Susan Kushner, from Ramona Quimby's school days. (Who can forget those boing-boing curls?) One day, while studying the back of Mary Sue's head, Gertie "wondered why some people ... got to wear lip gloss and meet famous people and sit in the front row. And she wondered why she wasn't one of those people." Don't we all, Gertie, don't we all. Like many of her plucky motherless predecessors, Gertie never gives up. As her dad says, she's a "bulldog with its jaws locked on a car tire." Beasley takes us on a rollicking tour of mislaid plans and Gertie's subsequent picking herself up, dusting herself off and starting all over again. One of the most poignant moments happens when the dreaded Mary Sue starts a Clean Earth Club to protest offshore drilling - which is, of course, the means by which Gertie's dad puts food on their table. Gertie's anxiety here is palpable; she's proud of her dad, a kind man reminiscent of Molly Ringwald's father in "Pretty in Pink." He's not around much, but when he is, he has wise things to say, such as "The people who love me, love me no matter what my job is." Regardless of your position on offshore drilling, it's impossible not to land in the camp of people who love Frank Foy. My lone criticism should not be grounds for sidestepping this book. But I did have trouble grounding myself in a particular time period. Given the environmentalism angle, I'm assuming Beasley means to set her story in the present, yet the kids feel oddly old-fashioned - watching "The Waltons," using expressions like "goody two shoes" and "quiet as little church mice." Don't get me wrong: I was happy to lose myself in a universe devoid of the Disney Channel. I mention my confusion only because Beasley's world is otherwise so meticulously drawn, and because young readers have sensitive radar for things they deem too old-fashioned. Nonetheless, "Gertie's Leap to Greatness" is breathlessly, effortlessly fun. When Gertie is gearing up for her speech, she reminds herself, "The important thing wasn't what you told, but how you told it." This may be accurate in an oratorical sense, but in the case of "Gertie's Leap to Greatness," it couldn't be further from the truth. In Beasley's book, we are lucky enough to find the whole package: an entertaining story, well told. ELISABETH EGAN is the books editor at Glamour magazine and the author of the novel "A Window Opens."