#ROLL WITH IT JAMIE SUMNER PROFESSIONAL#

I also wanted to write a story that includes disability, but isn’t about disability. I wanted a book that was about a girl who is feisty and loves her family fiercely and finds herself in her baking and refuses to let anyone label her by what they see. I wanted to write a book that would show my son and all the other kids with special needs that they don’t have to be shrunk down to their diagnosis. He rolls around in his wheelchair and struggles with many of the things Ellie struggles with in the book – fighting to be known for something other than a disability, especially when that disability is so visible with the wheelchair. In the end, part of the story seemed to be missing.Jamie Sumner: My oldest son has cerebral palsy. Still, I wish the book had lasted a little longer, so that readers could learn more about life in her new hometown. Roll with It is a solid contemporary middle-grade read, one that I enjoyed primarily because of Ellie and her confident attitude. But how did the rest of the school year progress? And what about the school mean girls? Did Ellie win them over with her baking? And how are her friends faring? Are they pursuing their dreams? Finding their place? The story was too short to really answer all these questions, even if the answers are that, in life, sometimes there are no easy answers or happy endings with school mean girls. For instance, readers learn she had a rocky first day and that only her PE teacher seems prepared to do an IEP for her. The book ended quickly, and I felt like I wanted to know more. The structure somehow seems a little unfinished. The characters are perhaps the book’s greatest strength. Meanwhile, her friends are middle school social outcasts just like her, but ones that, if imperfect, always have her back. Part of Ellie’s story is trying to be there for her grandfather as he declines, and trying to accept that he is losing memories that she cherishes. And her grandfather is a sweetheart, a man who clearly “gets” Ellie and her need to take risks and to be herself. Her mom, for instance, does not get everything right, but she tries very hard to take care of Ellie and, when necessary, to fight for her. Fortunately, however, she is surrounded by a loving family and some new friends who are ready to support her as she follows her dreams.Įllie’s relationships with her family and friends are truly heartwarming, and one of the great strengths of the novel. Ellie, of course, has very specific, individualized fears: she worries that other people only see her wheelchair, and that they do not appreciate her talents, her strength, her smarts. She is twelve years old and transitioning into that period where adolescents typically like to explore their identities and figure out who they are and how they fit into the world.

Roll with It will have readers rooting for Ellie to win the first place ribbon and make her mark on her new town.Įllie is an independent spirit who, I think, is very relatable in her desire to do things by herself, in her own way, without her mom “babying” her. However, as she starts to make friends, Ellie sees the pie competition as more than a way to jump start career it is also a way to prove to her mom that they belong in their new town. She does not want the kids staring at her and she is worried because the teachers have never had to make an individualized education plan before. At first, Ellie is unsure she likes their new home. Ellie and her mom have recently moved towns to help her grandmother take care of her grandfather, who has Alzheimer’s.

#ROLL WITH IT JAMIE SUMNER PROFESSIONAL#

Roll with It is a fun middle-grade novel about one girl’s dream of becoming a professional baker, step one being her entry in a local pie competition.

Roll with it jamie sumner