Weeks, Sarah. (2005). So B. It. New York: HarperCollins.
This books won the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award in 2007 and the Parents Choice Award. This story is about a young, thirteen-year-old girl named Heidi who lives with her mother that is mentally-disabled and her neighbor, Bernadette. Because of her mother's disability and her neighbor's fear of going outside, Heidi has to do many duties beyond her age. One day, Heidi finds a camera hidden in a drawer that contains clues to her family's history. She goes on an adventure to New York to uncover more about her family's unknown history and to discover the meaning of the word her mother repeats, "soof." Throughout her journey to New York she meets kind and helpful characters as her "lucky streak" seems to continue. Once in New York she meets a man who also has a mental-disability, and he says her mother's word, "soof," to her also. While the man's caretaker is not helpful to Heidi, a friendly woman, Ruby, and her husband help Heidi investigate further. In the end, Heidi finds out that the man who repeated the word "soof" to her is actually her father! The story ends bitter sweet because her mother dies, but Heidi gains a father, grandfather, and many friends. In addition she learns the meaning of her mother's word, love.
This heart-warming story would be a great book to use for a literature focus unit. It has rich vocabulary, deep themes of friendship, family, love, and disability acceptance, and is a suspenseful page-turner for young readers. I think this book would be perfect for a literature focus unit.
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