Stella is spending the summer living with her Great Aunt Louise on the Cape. She is going to help Louise tend to the summer cottages adjacent to her little house. Louise isn't a big one on emotion, and Stella is surprised when after talking to Louise about her mother and blueberries, Louise wraps her in a hug. This pleases Stella, because she loves the idea of ties between people. Since her own mother isn't exactly dependable, Stella likes the even nature of Louise and her clean house and tidy garden. She even is trying to find a way to get along with foster kid Angel, who Louise took in thinking could keep Stella company. The two girls couldn't be more different, and Stella can't imagine why Louise thought having two girls was a good idea.
The thing is, Louise is older and she's not well. Angel and Stella make a gruesome discovery when they come home from school one day, and they have some heavy choices to make. Can they make a go of the summer on their own? Should Angel run? What will happen if folks find out they are living without any adult supervision? And what are they going to tell George - the local who is supposed to help Louise take care of the rentals? Most importantly, what are they going to do with Louise?
The girls decide to make a go of it, and have to figure out a way to get along. Their differences turn out to be a good thing as Stella could use some fire and Angel could use some forethought. Readers see the girls deal with bills, finding food, lying about Louise's whereabouts, and dealing with their own guilt. All of this is wrapped up in Sara Pennypacker's rich prose, describing the Cape, the cottages, the beach, as well as the interconnected nature of life. "I like to imagine the ties between us as strands of spider silk: practically invisible, maybe, but strong as steel. I figure the trick is to spin out enough of them to weave ourselves into a net." (p.1)
Readers will be left wondering what they would do if they were ever in Stella and Angel's predicament. Honestly at first, I was wondering who I would give this book to. It's clearly not for the same audience as
Clementine. There are heady issues in
Summer of the Gypsy Moths, and at times the bigger ideas are a little scary. Ultimately, however, this is a story of friendship, survival and hope, and thoughtful tweens will be ready for the serious nature of Stella and Angel's situation.
“Holes in a urban environment [San Francisco]“? Apparently that’s what the editors of Shifty have been calling it. To which I say, um, NOT! It doesn’t have the same humor or delicious sense of irony, no shifting between time periods or friendship between boys. But that’s okay, because the book it did remind me of is another one of my favorite books, America by E. R. Frank.
Soli has spent nearly all of his life in the foster care system. He picked up the nickname Shifty because of his ability to talk his way out of trouble, including those tight situations he keeps getting into whenever hunts for parking spaces in San Francisco. But now he’s facing the kind of trouble he may not be able to talk his way out of. Soli likes his current foster mother, Martha, and the younger children who have also been placed with Martha, seven-year-old Sissy and baby Chance (recently named by Soli, since Soli doesn’t like Chance’s birth name). Adoptive parents will be taking Chance in a few days, but Soli’s new family may be torn completely apart by the arrival of a new, by-the-book social worker. Both Soli and Martha have good intentions, but the things that their previous social worker would willingly overlook are definite violations in Sheila’s eyes and therefore valid reasons to possibly remove Soli and Sissy from Martha’s care.
Shifty would be a great choice for reluctant readers. I don’t care for the cover (which seems rather Dough Boy-ish), but the chapters are short and the voice and plot compelling. Soli, Martha, and Sissy are likable and easy to root for. There is some humor to lighten the mood, which is never as heavy or intense as America. Overall, Shifty is an enjoyable read about a tough subject.
