Scumble by Ingrid Law
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
http://us.penguingroup.com/static/packages/us/yreaders/savvy/excerpts.php
"Scumble" defined is, in painting, to blend a color down to balance more in a painting; in Savvy #2, the control of natural ability to attain internal balance, by one of this amazing unnatural extended family. Where #1 starts with a father severely injured and goes in a silly pink bus, #2 begins and carries on with fun - wires, nuts, bolts, and beams - danger without fatal disaster. Years later, some of the same relatives continue; the story stands alone.
Ledge hits crucial 13, and explodes increasingly larger assembled mechanisms, hiding watches, toaster, such, under his bed. His mother asserts her control power instead of letting him find his own. On a road trip, they meet Sarah Jane, intrepid reporter. When Ledge explodes a motorcycle, she stows away to the family wedding. She steals, lies, writes whoppers, and gets away with it because she's pretty, unappreciated by her rich dad, and Ledge has a crush. Ooo, spoiler? Na. I can guess why she's motherless, and how Ledge will finally scumble his savvy, can't you?
"A boy's gotta fall a few times ... to pick himself up" - Grandpa Bomba p94
"It can take alot of strength just to show up and be yourself." - Rocket p240
Not much of what these people do makes sense to me, but then neither does life, at least this story is funny. "I won't put a shoe in his house" promise sounds iffy, and ch. 33 gives the answer. For 30 chapters, our hero rinses off in the cold creek, until his uncle hands him a bar of soap and hints about a hot shower. At least the final kiss is unbelievable. The closing jackalope illustration is better than I envisioned, too.
Unfortunately, Discussion Questions misspells lightning as lightnting.
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