Roll with It

Starred review from July 29, 2019
Headstrong 12-year-old Lily “Ellie” Cowan loves to bake. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth, Ellie heads to the kitchen when she gets frustrated with her overprotective mom, her hovering full-time aide, and her absent father. After Ellie’s grandfather, who has dementia, drives his car into the local supermarket, Ellie and her mom pack up their Nashville home and move into her grandparents’ tiny trailer in Eufaula, Okla. Soon, Ellie meets free-spirited neighbor Coralee and eccentric schoolmate Bert; their acceptance helps her to cope with her new school, which is far from wheelchair-friendly. Drawing on her own experiences with her son, who has cerebral palsy, debut author Sumner doesn’t sugarcoat Ellie’s daily challenges—social, emotional, and physical—including navigating showers and crowded classrooms. Sumner also makes it clear that Ellie is a regular kid who dreams of becoming a chef, which is conveyed partly through letters that Ellie writes to various culinary experts throughout the book. In addition, Sumner deftly explores universal difficulties of fitting in and following one’s passions. Ellie is easy to champion, and her story reminds readers that life’s burdens are always lighter with friends and family—and a good piece of pie—at the ready. Ages 10–up. Agent: Keely Boeving, WordServe Literary.

September 1, 2019

Gr 5-7-In Sumner's middle grade debut, 12-year-old Ellie dreams of being a famous baker/chef, instead of being known as the "kid with cerebral palsy in a wheelchair." Ellie is obsessed with learning baking techniques with her overworked mother and writes letters to her favorite celebrity chefs about the recipes she has tried. Ellie's world is turned upside down when she and her mother move to her grandmother's trailer park residence in Oklahoma to assist with the care of her ailing grandfather, who suffers from the early stages of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Ellie rises to the challenge of being the new girl in school and makes new friends through her kindness, as well as her baking prowess. Ellie finds a way to conquer her doubts and prove to her mother that the move to Oklahoma was a good thing for both of them. Young readers will delve into Ellie's relationships with her distant father and her mother, grandparents, friends, neighbors, teachers, and classmates. Sumner offers a heartfelt and humorous glimpse into the life of a girl with cerebral palsy who is determined to make her mark on a world that often perceives her as limited because of her disability. However, adults may want to discuss the ableist terms and sentiments Ellie expresses when describing herself, including the word "crippled" and feeling "stuck" in a wheelchair. VERDICT Recommended for fans of tender realistic fiction including Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's The War That Saved My Life and Elana K. Arnold's A Boy Called Bat. The challenges faced by youth like Ellie are underrepresented in children's literature; highly recommended for middle grade collections.-Angelina Bair, Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library, OH

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2019
Grades 5-8 *Starred Review* Ellie, twelve, loves baking and writing to famous chefs. She dislikes needing help to use the bathroom; people who think she's a sunny, brave, idiot because she is in a wheelchair; and having an aide to follow her around?and she does not mind saying so. Any of Ellie's troubles pall, however, when her grandmother starts having difficulty with her grandfather, who has Alzheimer's. Ellie and her mother move to Oklahoma to help out, and Ellie dreads starting a new school in the middle of the school year. This time is different, though, as she acquires two new friends almost immediately: Coralee, a budding beauty-pageant competitor who lives next door, and Bert, a boy who is probably on the autism spectrum. Ellie's goal is to win the pie competition at the church picnic, although a near tragedy with her grandfather almost overshadows the event. In the end, however, Ellie has a new life that she thoroughly enjoys. Ellie takes on life head first, and her first-person, present-tense narrative reveals a feisty, dynamic character surrounded by well-rounded characters just as appealing as she is. The plot moves swiftly, and it's refreshing that the story's focus is less on Ellie's disability and more on her gradual ability to learn how to roll with the situations that life throws her way.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

Starred review from September 15, 2019
A middle schooler with cerebral palsy faces a new school and family upheaval in Sumner's debut. Twelve-year-old Ellie Cowan dreams of becoming a great baker; when she's not penning letters to celebrity chefs, she's practicing recipes. But sometimes--especially when her single mom's protectiveness goes overboard--her CP feels like "the Go to Jail card in Monopoly: No matter where you are, it always shoots you back to zero." When Ellie and her mom temporarily move from Nashville, Tennessee, to Eufaula, Oklahoma, to help care for Grandpa, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, Ellie struggles with being not only "the new kid in the wheelchair" at school, but one of the ostracized "trailer park kids." But after Ellie befriends outspoken aspiring singer Coralee and fact-reciting "mega geek" Bert (who is, Ellie observes, "probably on the spectrum" but undiagnosed in this small town with little support), the quirky trio find themselves cooking up ways for Ellie to stay--"maybe forever." Her voice equal parts vulnerable, reflective, and deliciously wry, Ellie is refreshingly complex. Kids navigating disabilities may find her frank frustration with inaccessibility, illness, and patronization particularly cathartic, but readers with and without disabilities will recognize her desire to belong. The mother of a son with CP, the author portrays Ellie and her mom's loving but fraught relationship with achingly vivid accuracy, bringing the tension between Ellie's craving for independence and her mother's fears to a satisfying resolution. Characters, including Ellie, appear white. An honest, emotionally rich take on disability, family, and growing up. (Fiction. 10-14)

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