Me and Sam-Sam Handle the Apocalypse
When the library fund money disappears and Jesse's father becomes the main suspect, she turns to her friend Springer and her dog, Sam-Sam, to uncover the truth. When a tornado hits town, Jesse has to face the chaos while staying true to the way she thinks and feels in order to help save her family.
Work Information
With Sam-Sam by her side, Jesse can keep moving even when everything falls apart.
A middle-grade mystery that follows Jesse as she discovers her own strength while navigating both a missing library-funds case and the upheaval of a tornado-struck town. Her bond with Sam-Sam and the uneasy pull of her relationships with the people around her give the story a sense of urgency beneath its brisk pace.
Book Information
- Publisher
- A Paula Wiseman Book/Beach Lane Books
- Published
- 2020-06-09
- Pages
- 320 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.02 x 1.78 x 19.37 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781534425026
- ISBN-10
- 1534425020
- Price
- 2430 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Children's Books/Growing Up & Facts of Life/Difficult Discussions/Illness
“Deeply smart and considerate.” — BCCB “An absorbing mystery.” — Kirkus Reviews “A strong addition to help diversify realistic fiction collections to include neuroatypical characters and heroines.” — School Library Journal Jesse is on the case when money goes missing from the library and her dad is looking like the #1 suspect in Edgar Award–winning author Susan Vaught’s latest middle grade mystery. I could see the big inside of my Sam-Sam. I had been training him for 252 days with mini tennis balls and pieces of bacon, just to prove to Dad and Mom and Aunt Gus and the whole world that a tiny, fluffy dog could do big things if he wanted to. I think my little dog always knew he could be a hero. I just wonder if he knew about me. When the cops show up at Jesse’s house and arrest her dad, she figures out in a hurry that he’s the #1 suspect in the missing library fund money case. With the help of her (first and only) friend Springer, she rounds up suspects (leading to a nasty confrontation with three notorious school bullies) and asks a lot of questions. But she can’t shake the feeling that she isn’t exactly cut out for being a crime-solving hero. Jesse has a neuro-processing disorder, which means that she’s “on the spectrum or whatever.” As she explains it, “I get stuck on lots of stuff, like words and phrases and numbers and smells and pictures and song lines and what time stuff is supposed to happen.” But when a tornado strikes her small town, Jesse is given the opportunity to show what she's really made of—and help her dad. Told with the true-as-life voice Susan Vaught is known for, this mystery will have you rooting for Jesse and her trusty Pomeranian, Sam-Sam.
Susan Vaught is the two-time Edgar Award–winning author of Footer Davis Probably Is Crazy and Me and Sam-Sam Handle the Apocalypse . Things Too Huge to Fix by Saying Sorry received three starred reviews, and Super Max and the Mystery of Thornwood’s Revenge was called “an excellent addition to middle grade shelves” by School Library Journal . Her debut picture book, Together We Grow , received four starred reviews and was called a “picture book worth owning and cherishing” by Kirkus Reviews . She works as a neuropsychologist at a state psychiatric facility and lives on a farm with her wife and son in rural western Kentucky. Learn more at SusanVaught.com.
Reviews
-
Smart Middle-Grade Novel
“Me and Sam-Sam Handle the Apocalypse” continues a positive trend of neurodiversity in middle-grade literature. Author Susan Vaught has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and Mental Retardation and appreciates the awkwardness of being different in junior high. Navigating every day serves as a challenge for some. Now, imagine young Jesse having to watch people drag her father away in handcuffs while her mother does a tour in Iraq. I initially scoffed at another protagonist “on the spectrum,” but Vaught writes in the first person to provide us with a unique perspective. When Jesse meets a similar boy, she introduces him to rocking chairs and weighted blankets in a scene that screams happiness and camaraderie. When she quotes things that she has counted and tallied, it comes as a skill instead of a compulsion. Jesse embarks upon a fact-finding mission, and you will recognize the amateurish kid detective theme from numerous other works. Still, here we have a very non-traditional thinker at work. As the story goes back and forth between the alleged theft and a tornado a week later, we see an overwhelmed little girl who does not realize why some inferences do not come naturally to her. We think that we know more about the Autistic community than we probably do, so the average reader may not predict how Jesse will react to the legal case or the weather emergency. I had no problem relating to her, though. As a teacher, I saw her detective work as highly inappropriate, but the author provides enough of a view into Jesse’s brain to see what she constitutes as right and just. Middle-grade literature should not entertain adults, but somehow it does. In this instance, you almost root for the adults and adolescents alike in their search for justice and survival. You come for the adventure and stay for the personalities. You see a good dose of empathy from the parents toward children who process things differently. If you love someone with Autism, read this with your kid immediately. Note: I have no idea how those of you overseas in the military with your families here do it, but there is a scene with Jesse and her mother on Skype that is one of the most touching things I have read in a long time.
-
Starts out interesting but gets more boring
preteen reader says: Didn't finish. Kind of boring.
Related Literary Awards
- Edgar Award Edition 75 (2020) ・juvenile category