Savvy (Talent)

A savvy isn't just the title of this book—it's also a definitely characteristic for many of the characters and a super meaningful symbol to boot. Pretty impressive for one little word, right? In Savvy, each Beaumont kid gets a special talent on their thirteenth birthday… called a savvy. And while each person's savvy is different, what they represent in each character is pretty much the same: something unique. But savvies aren't just unique super powers—they're also moments of transformation. And transformation, in many ways, is what this book is all about.

Let's take a closer look.

Before And After

Mibs—as our main lady and the person who finds their savvy in this book—is the clearest example of the transformation that happens when you get your savvy. We get to see her before and after she gets it, after all.

Pre-savvy Mibs is still very much a kid. She thinks that she knows what she's doing, and that she can take on the world by herself—that's why she does things like sneaks off to Salina to try to save her father. Heck—she's such a know-it-all before she finds her savvy that she mistakes her savvy for something else. Check it out:

Thinking about the turtle and remembering the unusual way Gypsy had woken up as I'd stepped out bed, a shaky and suspicious feeling started to gnaw down deep in my bones, a feeling that stuck with me the rest of the morning and continued to grow like smoke from a grassfire. (5.13)

Sometimes when we're kids we want so badly for something to be true that we'll believe anything we can to try to make it true. Here we see Mibs doing just that, drawing grand conclusions from what are, in actuality, just ordinary events. Her turtle came out of hibernation and her kid sister woke up—that's all. Nothing super powered about it.

Turning thirteen is a big enough deal in its own right, and adding getting a savvy that day into the mix definitely makes the transition an even bigger deal. Mibs is pretty much on her own on her thirteenth birthday too, since her mom and dad are at the hospital, and she really struggles with making this giant transition. So much so, in fact, that she continues to convince herself that her savvy is something that it isn't, long after it's clear that her savvy is hearing people's thoughts.

Sometimes It Is Greener

Once Mibs goes through her transition (i.e. starts actually being a teenager and growing up a bit), things get a lot better for Mibs. Post-savvy, she communicates better with her family and friends, she learns to harness her savvy to help others, and she's able to understand herself and what she needs much better than before. She even tells Will Junior no, not just yet when it comes to kisses:

I was confident that Will's heart was a steady one and suspected that he wouldn't fall to watermelon mush just because I wasn't ready to be kissing him. But we were friends now and I didn't want to bust that up. (27.20)

What having a savvy shows us is that transitioning from being a kid to being an adult can be really tough, but the payoff is really great—you know yourself better, you deal with things better, and yet you can still be a kid once in a while.