' 'All the basic parts are there, Heidi, and from the outside she looks like she should work just fine, but inside there are lots of mysterious little pieces busted or bent or missing altogether, and without them her machine doesn't run quite right.' Bernie once explained it to me by comparing Mama to a broken machine. My mother loved me in her own special way, but she couldn't take care of me herself because of her bum brain. Bernadette started off being the next-door neighbor, but that didn't last very long. What I had was Mama and Bernadette, and as far as I was concerned, that was plenty. 'One thing I knew for a fact, from the time I knew anything at all, was that I didn't have a father. That is due to the fact that there are a grand total of twenty-three words, sounds, or short phrases that her mother is capable of articulating. The truth about her mother's background and past is as totally unknown to Heidi as is the true color of dinosaur skin. But that was a long time ago, before I knew what I know now about both dinosaur skin and the truth.' I used to think, without really thinking about it, that I knew what color that was. 'If truth was a crayon and it was up to me to put a wrapper around it and name its color, I know just what I would call it- dinosaur skin. IT: A NOVEL by Sarah Weeks, HarperCollins/Laura Geringer Books, May 2004, ISBN: 0-06-623622-3 ISBN Library: 0-06-623623-1 However, I would recommend this book to my students and love the messages of perseverance and identity to the reader.SO B. I was not expecting the ending and am not entirely sure I liked the ending.

I chos this book because another teacher recommended it to me. But it isn’t until she learns to accept not knowing that Heidi truly arrives.-Amazon Overall Thoughts When a strange word in her mother’s vocabulary begins to haunt her, Heidi sets out on a cross-country journey in search of the secrets of her past.įar away from home, pieces of her puzzling history come together.

In fact, everything about Heidi and her mentally disabled mother’s past is a mystery. She doesn’t know when her birthday is or who her father is. Now a major motion picture starring Alfre Woodard, Jessica Collins, John Heard, Jacinda Barrett, Cloris Leachman, and Talitha Bateman-in theaters October 2017!įrom acclaimed author Sarah Weeks comes a touching coming-of-age story about a young girl who goes on a cross-country journey to discover the truth about her parents, which the New York Times called “a remarkable novel.” Perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me and Ali Benjamin’s The Thing About Jellyfish.

So b it by sarah weeks