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Harry Sue
Harry Sue Clotkin is tough. Her mom's in the slammer and she wants to get there, too, as fast as possible, so they can be together. But it's not so easy to become a juvenile delinquent when you've got a tender heart.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
April 11, 2013
Somewhere between Matilda and The Great Gilly Hopkins lives Harry Sue. The daughter of two convicted felons, Harry Sue knows you've got to be tough if you want to survive on the inside. The "inside," in her case, is the prison of her grandmother's house: it may appear to be a charming daycare, but don't be fooled. Both the littlest crumb snatchers and eleven-year-old hostages alike are cons in this place, where Grammy is negligent on a good day and downright abusive on a bad one. Harry Sue's got the crumb snatchers' backs; they're small, but hey, they're her crew. Another road dog (check her joint jive dictionary) is her neighbor Homer. Homer and Harry Sue both survived falls: for Homer, it was a diving accident that left him a quadriplegic, serving a life-sentence in a useless body and a custom treehouse. Harry Sue? Her fall was when she was crumb snatcher herself and her drunk daddy decided to throw her out the window. Homer is fascinated by her story, and by miracles in general, and tries to help her find her mom, incarcerated who-knows-where thanks to Granny's secrecy. But Harry Sue's got to be careful around her crew, her mysterious new art teacher, and perhaps one day, even her mom; because if you want to survive your time, you have to guard your heart.
August 27, 2014
Why did this not get any Newbery recognition? Really, come on now, it was at least worthy of an Honor. (Was it because people find it too hard to pronounce her last name? According to her website, it's STOFF-ICK-ER. Not that hard, folks.) Or was it the... strange cover art of the hardcover? (I hope not; I happen to be more fond of the hardcover than my paperback version, and books with weirder covers have gotten Newbery recognition before...) Certainly, it's more distinguished than many kid books these days.
This book did most of the things found in a trying-too-hard book by an inexperienced author, and did them better than many experienced authors probably could have. Even if your tolerance for quirk is rock bottom, this book is so realistic and down-to-earth that it won't hurt you at all. I think only a person meaner than Harry Sue's granny could dislike it. Gotta love the con lingo and the crazy re-telling of "Little Red Riding Hood," which really must be read to be believed.
Buy it and read it, now. Do not be put off by its relative obscurity. It's a hidden, gleaming diamond amongst the rocks.
This book did most of the things found in a trying-too-hard book by an inexperienced author, and did them better than many experienced authors probably could have. Even if your tolerance for quirk is rock bottom, this book is so realistic and down-to-earth that it won't hurt you at all. I think only a person meaner than Harry Sue's granny could dislike it. Gotta love the con lingo and the crazy re-telling of "Little Red Riding Hood," which really must be read to be believed.
Buy it and read it, now. Do not be put off by its relative obscurity. It's a hidden, gleaming diamond amongst the rocks.
April 23, 2010
This book wrecked me. WRECKED me. I picked it up, thinking I'd read it leisurely over the weekend, and quickly found that I couldn't put it down. It's really, really good for about 2/3 of the book, and then it gets REALLY, REALLY GOOD. I read it at a coffee shop and started crying but couldn't put it down long enough to leave and go someplace quiet.
The only word I can think of to describe this book is miraculous, and I don't mean that in a cheesy way. More like how I felt after reading Owen Meany, which was, of course that was supposed to happen.
Don't be fooled by those nerds who call it a children's book. It's an everyone book, and especially a people who have a heart book.
The only word I can think of to describe this book is miraculous, and I don't mean that in a cheesy way. More like how I felt after reading Owen Meany, which was, of course that was supposed to happen.
Don't be fooled by those nerds who call it a children's book. It's an everyone book, and especially a people who have a heart book.
March 6, 2008
I ran out of library books so started combing my shelf and found this little gem that I read when it first came out and fell in love with it all over again. Harry Sue doesn't have it easy -- with both parents in jail, her best friend paralyzed, and living with her horrid Granny. Harry Sue tries her darndest to be tough, but her heart seems to keep getting in the way. At first she thinks a life of crime so she can be with her mom is the way to go, but then she realizes caring about people isn't so bad. A funny, wonderful read that only Sue S. can do! Enjoy.
January 6, 2009
A fictional retelling of some true life horrors that have occured to some "crumb-snatchers", read children. Harry Sue is a young girl stuck living with her evil grandmother since both of her parents have been incarcerated...her Dad for almost killing Harry Sue and Mom for the meth lab in the kitchen.
Written in the first-person narrative the story is told from Harry Sue's perspective, she wants nothing more than to land in the joint so she can be with her Mom. The problem is her soft heart and the responsibilities she assumes on the outside...taking care of the daycare children that her grandmother regulary neglects and her quadrapalegic friend who refuses to leave his treehouse.
This book is full of rich interesting characters, but written for young audience, so it's a quick read that wraps up like a summary of a story. I would have liked to have read more about the relationship between Harry Sue and her grandomther, who neglects young children in a daycare she runs. Her grandomther typically neglects and ignores Harry Sue, but obviously wants to do so much worse. I would also have like to have read more backstory regarding Harry Sue's parents.
Overall a great read if you have a couple hours to kill.
Written in the first-person narrative the story is told from Harry Sue's perspective, she wants nothing more than to land in the joint so she can be with her Mom. The problem is her soft heart and the responsibilities she assumes on the outside...taking care of the daycare children that her grandmother regulary neglects and her quadrapalegic friend who refuses to leave his treehouse.
This book is full of rich interesting characters, but written for young audience, so it's a quick read that wraps up like a summary of a story. I would have liked to have read more about the relationship between Harry Sue and her grandomther, who neglects young children in a daycare she runs. Her grandomther typically neglects and ignores Harry Sue, but obviously wants to do so much worse. I would also have like to have read more backstory regarding Harry Sue's parents.
Overall a great read if you have a couple hours to kill.
February 26, 2019
11 August 2005 HARRY SUE by Sue Stauffacher, Random House/Knopf, July 2005, ISBN: 0-375-83274-2, Libr.ISBN: 0-375-932747
"Everything comes and goes
Pleasure moves on too early
And trouble leaves too slow."
--Joni Mitchell "Down to You"
The closest I ever came to being locked up was in 1974 when, as a result of parting ways with a girlfriend, I found myself in possession of an extra ticket for Joni Mitchell's appearance at the Nassau Coliseum on her Court and Spark tour. Wandering around the venue well before the start of the show, I unwittingly offered to sell the extra ticket to an undercover Nassau County cop who responded by handcuffing me, dragging me into the Coliseum security office, and stripping me. As I wasn't "holding," I was eventually directed not to do anything stupid and released in time for the beginning of the show.
So, alas, I have no experience with joint jive (prison language). Fortunately for me and the younger fish (new prisoners) who get their hands on this book, Harry Sue precedes the telling of her amazing tale by providing an extensive Joint Jive Glossary so that we can understand what she's bumpin' her gums about.
Harriet Susan Clotkin has learned to speak in Conglish (a combination of joint jive and English). She's hoping to soon get over her softheartedness so that she can begin a life of crime, get herself sent up, and hopefully become reunited with the mother she hasn't seen or heard from since she was five, back when her parents were both sent to prison.
"Before we go any further, we have to go back. Way back. Seven years back, to the day of my accident. You can't fully appreciate the saga of Harry Sue unless you know the backstory. Every conette has a backstory. It's hard enough returning to the night that changed my life forever, but if it was up to my road dog, Homer, we'd go back even further.
"You see, Homer would argue that my father, Garnett Clotkin, didn't just show up to our apartment that night swearing and spitting like a rabid dog for no reason at all. Not everyone expresses their anger with violence. Garnett had to be trained to it.
" 'Maybe your granny tied his shoes too tight,' he'd offer, or 'Maybe it was her habit of dunking his head in toilet water when he sassed her.'
"I say, any way you slice it, it's still bread."
That fateful night, unable to convince his wife Mary Bell to take him back, Harry Sue's drunken father had angrily proceeded to throw his daughter out of the window--which happened to be seven stories up. Harry Sue fortunately ended up bouncing around in an elm tree through which she descended in a "slow motion game of pinball," ending up with "a severe case of bruising, a dislocated shoulder, and two broken ribs." Unfortunately, when her mother rushed downstairs after Harry Sue, "she forgot to put away the toy chemistry lab she'd set up on the table to make crystal methamphetamine, or crank as it's called on the street, an illegal drug she mostly used herself to stay awake while working the swing shift at the auto glass factory."
Both parents gone in one fell swoop.
Harry Sue's aforementioned paternal grandmother has always resented Mary Bell, the woman she believes ruined her son's life by getting pregnant. Granny also despises the product of that pregnancy. Unfortunately, Harry Sue has had to spend the past seven years doing time at her grandmother's house. And it's there that, to make a buck, Granny runs a home daycare operation called "Granny's Lap" that makes Christopher Paul Curtis' unscrupulous Sarge character look like a regular Mother Teresa. If there is anywhere that you can especially see the softness of Harry Sue's heart exposed, it's when she hangs out after school with the little "crumb snatchers," to whom she's all taught joint jive, and to whom she tells stories like "The Three Little Pork Rinds," and "Red the Hood."
The one person Harry Sue's always turned to is her longtime road dog (friend you know you can count on), Christopher Dinkins a.k.a. Homer Price.
"Homer's nick came from his habit of dreaming up inventions, and before the accident, building them, too.
"But that was all before he got slammed with, not a deuce, not an eight ball, not a dime, but an all day...Yes, it's true, Fish. Homer Price maxed out with a life sentence for the crime of diving off the Grand Haven pier."
Since surviving that headfirst dive into a rock, Christopher/Homer, who is now a quadriplegic, spends his days lying on his back, gazing out a window in the treehouse that he's designed in the backyard with a lift to get him and his bed up there. He dreams up inventions Harry Sue needs to get by and, in turn, she keeps him company and works hard to pull him out of the dark place he sometimes gets himself boxed into.
Life is a dark place for Harry Sue as well. Having read THE WIZARD OF OZ dozens of times, she sees parallels between her own life and that of Dorothy Gale's. As Harry Sue works on her plans to save the crumb snatchers and to figure out which joint her mother is locked away in, and as Homer tries to make sense of his life without moving parts, new and unusual teachers enter each of their lives.
Despite the edginess of the premise, this is a middle school book free of sexual content and so-called "bad words." As the author details in her "Notes and Acknowledgments," the numerous issues the reader confronts in the book are all based upon real-life incidents. Between the craftsmanship, the issues and, especially, the high-interest, reader-friendly quality of this amazing tale written in joint jive, this is certainly a book that is custom made for teaching in sixth and seventh grades, and a must-have for middle school libraries.
As I'll be telling my own crew, you'd have to be a J-Cat to pass up reading this one.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/
richiepartington@gmail.com
"Everything comes and goes
Pleasure moves on too early
And trouble leaves too slow."
--Joni Mitchell "Down to You"
The closest I ever came to being locked up was in 1974 when, as a result of parting ways with a girlfriend, I found myself in possession of an extra ticket for Joni Mitchell's appearance at the Nassau Coliseum on her Court and Spark tour. Wandering around the venue well before the start of the show, I unwittingly offered to sell the extra ticket to an undercover Nassau County cop who responded by handcuffing me, dragging me into the Coliseum security office, and stripping me. As I wasn't "holding," I was eventually directed not to do anything stupid and released in time for the beginning of the show.
So, alas, I have no experience with joint jive (prison language). Fortunately for me and the younger fish (new prisoners) who get their hands on this book, Harry Sue precedes the telling of her amazing tale by providing an extensive Joint Jive Glossary so that we can understand what she's bumpin' her gums about.
Harriet Susan Clotkin has learned to speak in Conglish (a combination of joint jive and English). She's hoping to soon get over her softheartedness so that she can begin a life of crime, get herself sent up, and hopefully become reunited with the mother she hasn't seen or heard from since she was five, back when her parents were both sent to prison.
"Before we go any further, we have to go back. Way back. Seven years back, to the day of my accident. You can't fully appreciate the saga of Harry Sue unless you know the backstory. Every conette has a backstory. It's hard enough returning to the night that changed my life forever, but if it was up to my road dog, Homer, we'd go back even further.
"You see, Homer would argue that my father, Garnett Clotkin, didn't just show up to our apartment that night swearing and spitting like a rabid dog for no reason at all. Not everyone expresses their anger with violence. Garnett had to be trained to it.
" 'Maybe your granny tied his shoes too tight,' he'd offer, or 'Maybe it was her habit of dunking his head in toilet water when he sassed her.'
"I say, any way you slice it, it's still bread."
That fateful night, unable to convince his wife Mary Bell to take him back, Harry Sue's drunken father had angrily proceeded to throw his daughter out of the window--which happened to be seven stories up. Harry Sue fortunately ended up bouncing around in an elm tree through which she descended in a "slow motion game of pinball," ending up with "a severe case of bruising, a dislocated shoulder, and two broken ribs." Unfortunately, when her mother rushed downstairs after Harry Sue, "she forgot to put away the toy chemistry lab she'd set up on the table to make crystal methamphetamine, or crank as it's called on the street, an illegal drug she mostly used herself to stay awake while working the swing shift at the auto glass factory."
Both parents gone in one fell swoop.
Harry Sue's aforementioned paternal grandmother has always resented Mary Bell, the woman she believes ruined her son's life by getting pregnant. Granny also despises the product of that pregnancy. Unfortunately, Harry Sue has had to spend the past seven years doing time at her grandmother's house. And it's there that, to make a buck, Granny runs a home daycare operation called "Granny's Lap" that makes Christopher Paul Curtis' unscrupulous Sarge character look like a regular Mother Teresa. If there is anywhere that you can especially see the softness of Harry Sue's heart exposed, it's when she hangs out after school with the little "crumb snatchers," to whom she's all taught joint jive, and to whom she tells stories like "The Three Little Pork Rinds," and "Red the Hood."
The one person Harry Sue's always turned to is her longtime road dog (friend you know you can count on), Christopher Dinkins a.k.a. Homer Price.
"Homer's nick came from his habit of dreaming up inventions, and before the accident, building them, too.
"But that was all before he got slammed with, not a deuce, not an eight ball, not a dime, but an all day...Yes, it's true, Fish. Homer Price maxed out with a life sentence for the crime of diving off the Grand Haven pier."
Since surviving that headfirst dive into a rock, Christopher/Homer, who is now a quadriplegic, spends his days lying on his back, gazing out a window in the treehouse that he's designed in the backyard with a lift to get him and his bed up there. He dreams up inventions Harry Sue needs to get by and, in turn, she keeps him company and works hard to pull him out of the dark place he sometimes gets himself boxed into.
Life is a dark place for Harry Sue as well. Having read THE WIZARD OF OZ dozens of times, she sees parallels between her own life and that of Dorothy Gale's. As Harry Sue works on her plans to save the crumb snatchers and to figure out which joint her mother is locked away in, and as Homer tries to make sense of his life without moving parts, new and unusual teachers enter each of their lives.
Despite the edginess of the premise, this is a middle school book free of sexual content and so-called "bad words." As the author details in her "Notes and Acknowledgments," the numerous issues the reader confronts in the book are all based upon real-life incidents. Between the craftsmanship, the issues and, especially, the high-interest, reader-friendly quality of this amazing tale written in joint jive, this is certainly a book that is custom made for teaching in sixth and seventh grades, and a must-have for middle school libraries.
As I'll be telling my own crew, you'd have to be a J-Cat to pass up reading this one.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/
richiepartington@gmail.com
June 11, 2009
I fell in love with this tough and tender, gutsy chick. The Wizard of Oz underlying theme - fantastic. Yay, Sue!
xx-dnf-skim-reference
March 14, 2021Maybe if the copy I found was the paperback I would have not bothered to try to read it. But the quirky hardcover appealed to me; I thought I'd be getting a quirkier book.
Instead, I got a disturbing one... all the more disturbing because based on facts. I got to p. 30 and read "... nine children under six alone in a house, completely unattended. If you can't stomach that thought, you'd better close this book right now because it's going to get a lot worse." So, given that I don't have a strong stomach, I closed the book.
And what's up with this almost feral child saying "you'd" there? Of course she's smart, but most adults even would say "you" in all but the most formal context. I didn't trust the voice of the child narrator.
dnf March 2021
Instead, I got a disturbing one... all the more disturbing because based on facts. I got to p. 30 and read "... nine children under six alone in a house, completely unattended. If you can't stomach that thought, you'd better close this book right now because it's going to get a lot worse." So, given that I don't have a strong stomach, I closed the book.
And what's up with this almost feral child saying "you'd" there? Of course she's smart, but most adults even would say "you" in all but the most formal context. I didn't trust the voice of the child narrator.
dnf March 2021
December 13, 2025
Absolutely delightful tale of a young girl who has had a rough start - the child of convicted felons is enough! She figures she has to be tough - to survive at school, and the neglectful in-home care situation, and in the world in general… Her goal is to see her mom; in fact, get sent to prison to be with her!
Lots of fun reading in the middle, on her journey to growing up enough to see she needs to be tough enough to protect others, and learn she will find love .
Harry Sue is a real character and takes your heart
Lots of fun reading in the middle, on her journey to growing up enough to see she needs to be tough enough to protect others, and learn she will find love .
Harry Sue is a real character and takes your heart
November 28, 2020
3.5 stars.
August 10, 2021
Loved this book!
May 30, 2022
Not your typical children’s book but definitely worth the read.
Read
June 25, 2017This book is a beautifully written reminder of the value of friendships, and is an appeal to sensitivity toward the child in all of us. The author pays and conveys exquisite detail to the nature of human interactions, which makes it a heartwarming (and at times heartbreaking) read. The story is a creative composite of real-life characters and events while also maintaining parallels to the classic story of Dorothy from Wizard of Oz.
January 12, 2011
J Stauffacher
There's alot going on in this enjoyable book told from the perspective of eleven year old Harry Sue Clotkin. Harry Sue was placed in the custody of her grandmother when her own mom was arrested and taken to jail. Since then, Harry Sue has been dreaming of being reunited with her mom, specifically thinking that the best way to do that was to become a criminal herself and land in jail, also. In the meantime, Harry Sue was placed in the custody of her paternal grandmother, an evil woman who runs an in-home daycare that is detrimental to the young children placed in granny's care. Despite her best attempts at being a cold hearted criminal (or at least a trouble maker), Harry Sue's actions prove otherwise as she continuously cares for the neglected children at the daycare; reads to and inspires her best friend, Homer, who was paralyzed in a diving accident; and decides to save the life of her school enemy when a prank goes too far.
Even with lots of contrived side plots (including a new teacher who is a former Sudanese "Lost Boy" and his girlfriend who is the zany new physical therapist for Homer and a widow of a paraplegic), the author manages to draw readers into this story to the very end. Harry Sue's narrative is very entertaining and includes lots of "joint jive" (or Conglish - a combination of English and con lingo), for which there is a glossary in case readers need it (I did!).
Read this book to find out if Harry Sue can successfully get out of her evil granny's house and back with her incarcerated mom - if she can even find her! Don't let the seemingly difficult subject matter deter you from reading this because despite all the heaviness of the various plot lines (Sudanese refugees, racism, paralysis, druf use, family abuse, etc.) this is a really light hearted, funny, and pleasant read.
There's alot going on in this enjoyable book told from the perspective of eleven year old Harry Sue Clotkin. Harry Sue was placed in the custody of her grandmother when her own mom was arrested and taken to jail. Since then, Harry Sue has been dreaming of being reunited with her mom, specifically thinking that the best way to do that was to become a criminal herself and land in jail, also. In the meantime, Harry Sue was placed in the custody of her paternal grandmother, an evil woman who runs an in-home daycare that is detrimental to the young children placed in granny's care. Despite her best attempts at being a cold hearted criminal (or at least a trouble maker), Harry Sue's actions prove otherwise as she continuously cares for the neglected children at the daycare; reads to and inspires her best friend, Homer, who was paralyzed in a diving accident; and decides to save the life of her school enemy when a prank goes too far.
Even with lots of contrived side plots (including a new teacher who is a former Sudanese "Lost Boy" and his girlfriend who is the zany new physical therapist for Homer and a widow of a paraplegic), the author manages to draw readers into this story to the very end. Harry Sue's narrative is very entertaining and includes lots of "joint jive" (or Conglish - a combination of English and con lingo), for which there is a glossary in case readers need it (I did!).
Read this book to find out if Harry Sue can successfully get out of her evil granny's house and back with her incarcerated mom - if she can even find her! Don't let the seemingly difficult subject matter deter you from reading this because despite all the heaviness of the various plot lines (Sudanese refugees, racism, paralysis, druf use, family abuse, etc.) this is a really light hearted, funny, and pleasant read.
October 19, 2009
Harry Sue
By: Sue Stauffacher / 290 pages
This novel is about an eleven year old girl, Harry Sue, whose childhood is far from a fairy tail. She strives to pull herself out of the deep hole her family has dug for her every day by turning to her favorite book, The Wizard of Oz. It was her mother’s favorite book and the last one she read before being sent up. Her parents are both in jai. Her father threw her out of a seven story building as an infant and is locked up for the rest of his life. Her mother, in an effort to get her only child to the emergency room, left her Meth lab and order forms right out on the kitchen table. The lab was discovered when the police came to check for evidence of her father’s crime. Harry Sue has been living with her rotten grandmother for as long as she can remember. Her single goal in life is to get sent to the joint in an effort to find her mother. There’s only one problem with her plan, Harry Sue’s heart is big and soft. Nothing like she needs to get sent to the Big House! Her best and only friend is a quadriplegic who can only move his neck and tongue. Harry Sue’s grandmother barely even recognizes her existence. She never even looks in her direction. All efforts Harry Sue makes to get a record always seem to backfire on her.
This is a remarkable story of a young girl, whose future seems lost forever, finding love in the most unlikely places. She’ll have to trust and put all her faith in complete strangers. They may be her only hope of restoring her hope from the tiny spark that lingers within her.
By: Sue Stauffacher / 290 pages
This novel is about an eleven year old girl, Harry Sue, whose childhood is far from a fairy tail. She strives to pull herself out of the deep hole her family has dug for her every day by turning to her favorite book, The Wizard of Oz. It was her mother’s favorite book and the last one she read before being sent up. Her parents are both in jai. Her father threw her out of a seven story building as an infant and is locked up for the rest of his life. Her mother, in an effort to get her only child to the emergency room, left her Meth lab and order forms right out on the kitchen table. The lab was discovered when the police came to check for evidence of her father’s crime. Harry Sue has been living with her rotten grandmother for as long as she can remember. Her single goal in life is to get sent to the joint in an effort to find her mother. There’s only one problem with her plan, Harry Sue’s heart is big and soft. Nothing like she needs to get sent to the Big House! Her best and only friend is a quadriplegic who can only move his neck and tongue. Harry Sue’s grandmother barely even recognizes her existence. She never even looks in her direction. All efforts Harry Sue makes to get a record always seem to backfire on her.
This is a remarkable story of a young girl, whose future seems lost forever, finding love in the most unlikely places. She’ll have to trust and put all her faith in complete strangers. They may be her only hope of restoring her hope from the tiny spark that lingers within her.
December 11, 2007
Harry Sue is the daughter of two felons (a con and a conette), and she’s doing her own time while she waits to get herself thrown in jail and reunited with her mother. But meanwhile, she has a whole mess of crumb snatchers (children) to rescue from evil Granny Clotkin’s abusive day care, and her best friend, the quadriplegic Homer Price, won’t come out of his treehouse. And Baba is the only teacher to believe in backstory more than detention, and Anna is a crazy J-Cat who may just know what’s she’s talking about.
It’s not easy being a conette with a life sentence, but with the help of her friends, Harry Sue will learn that you can survive with a heart of corrugated iron, but to really Live requires opening yourself up, even if it feels like taking a pounding to the heart.
This is a fantastic, gorgeous, brilliant and smart book. I’m not usually a big fan of books that require you to follow the lingo—I usually find it tired and annoying—but one readthrough of Harry Sue’s Conglish dictionary and I had no problem knowing what she was talking about. Her story is painful and wonderful at the same time. Harry Sue feels so strongly about things, even when she doesn’t want to. And her relationship with her quadriplegic best friend Homer Price is one of the greatest best-friend relationships in middle grade fiction history.
And that’s not even getting into the imagery from The Wizard of Oz that the book is peppered with.
This book is really, really smart, and it has a lot of heart. I want to read it again, and again, and again.
It’s not easy being a conette with a life sentence, but with the help of her friends, Harry Sue will learn that you can survive with a heart of corrugated iron, but to really Live requires opening yourself up, even if it feels like taking a pounding to the heart.
This is a fantastic, gorgeous, brilliant and smart book. I’m not usually a big fan of books that require you to follow the lingo—I usually find it tired and annoying—but one readthrough of Harry Sue’s Conglish dictionary and I had no problem knowing what she was talking about. Her story is painful and wonderful at the same time. Harry Sue feels so strongly about things, even when she doesn’t want to. And her relationship with her quadriplegic best friend Homer Price is one of the greatest best-friend relationships in middle grade fiction history.
And that’s not even getting into the imagery from The Wizard of Oz that the book is peppered with.
This book is really, really smart, and it has a lot of heart. I want to read it again, and again, and again.
June 20, 2008
Harry Sue is the daughter of two felons (a con and a conette), and she’s doing her own time while she waits to get herself thrown in jail and reunited with her mother. But meanwhile, she has a whole mess of crumb snatchers (children) to rescue from evil Granny Clotkin’s abusive day care, and her best friend, the quadriplegic Homer Price, won’t come out of his treehouse. And Baba is the only teacher to believe in backstory more than detention, and Anna is a crazy J-Cat who may just know what’s she’s talking about.
It’s not easy being a conette with a life sentence, but with the help of her friends, Harry Sue will learn that you can survive with a heart of corrugated iron, but to really Live requires opening yourself up, even if it feels like taking a pounding to the heart.
This is a fantastic, gorgeous, brilliant and smart book. I’m not usually a big fan of books that require you to follow the lingo—I usually find it tired and annoying—but one readthrough of Harry Sue’s Conglish dictionary and I had no problem knowing what she was talking about. Her story is painful and wonderful at the same time. Harry Sue feels so strongly about things, even when she doesn’t want to. And her relationship with her quadriplegic best friend Homer Price is one of the greatest best-friend relationships in middle grade fiction history.
And that’s not even getting into the imagery from The Wizard of Oz that the book is peppered with.
This book is really, really smart, and it has a lot of heart. I want to read it again, and again, and again.
It’s not easy being a conette with a life sentence, but with the help of her friends, Harry Sue will learn that you can survive with a heart of corrugated iron, but to really Live requires opening yourself up, even if it feels like taking a pounding to the heart.
This is a fantastic, gorgeous, brilliant and smart book. I’m not usually a big fan of books that require you to follow the lingo—I usually find it tired and annoying—but one readthrough of Harry Sue’s Conglish dictionary and I had no problem knowing what she was talking about. Her story is painful and wonderful at the same time. Harry Sue feels so strongly about things, even when she doesn’t want to. And her relationship with her quadriplegic best friend Homer Price is one of the greatest best-friend relationships in middle grade fiction history.
And that’s not even getting into the imagery from The Wizard of Oz that the book is peppered with.
This book is really, really smart, and it has a lot of heart. I want to read it again, and again, and again.
January 25, 2014
This is a totally different format than any YA book I have ever read. The “Joint Jive Glossary” that precedes the story is mandatory for those of us who have never been incarcerated. Harry Sue is a likable character despite everything she does to be despicable. As hard as she tries to embark on her crime spree in her heartbreaking quest to be re-united with her mother in jail, she is foiled at every turn in her inability to allow others to suffer or be hurt. As far-fetched as the storyline is, very few people will not be able to identify with some part of it. Regarding Harry Sue's love of the book The Wizard of Oz, Sue Stauffacher says in her Notes and Acknowledgements at the end of the book, “But most importantly, in connecting with the characters from Baum’s story, Harry Sue is doing what librarians and passionate readers have always understood: stories can sustain us in times of great trouble. They comfort and inspire. I hope we never lose sight of the importance of imagination and of stories as a tool for combating despair.”
As I started this book I didn't think I was going to like it and nearly gave it up, but I am very glad I perservered. The book covers a number of topics other than incarceration and would be a good tool to use with an older child to open up discussions about incarcerated parents, foster care, crime, acting out, friendship and loyalty, disabilities, emotional issues, and especially the importance of screening your day care center!
As I started this book I didn't think I was going to like it and nearly gave it up, but I am very glad I perservered. The book covers a number of topics other than incarceration and would be a good tool to use with an older child to open up discussions about incarcerated parents, foster care, crime, acting out, friendship and loyalty, disabilities, emotional issues, and especially the importance of screening your day care center!
October 24, 2011
Filled with _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_ references. Harry Sue is a child whose father and mother are both in jail for various crimes. It is Harry Sue’s life goal to someday go to prison herself so that she may be reunited with her family. For now, she lives with her grandmother, an evil, self-centered woman who runs a day care and neglects everyone in her care. Over the course of the book, Harry Sue meets new characters and learns to trust people, even though she wants instead to harden herself for her future life in prison. Part of the joy that comes from reading the novel is finding all of the points that match with Baum’s text and Harry Sue is quick to point of some of them for the reader. Oz was the one book that her mother read to her before she was sent to prison so it becomes a connection that she is ready to highlight. However, not all of the allusions are made by the narrator and it is up to the reader to find them. Issues of ethics, identity, and abuse, though the tone makes the book extremely fun to read.
January 8, 2017
Eleven-year-old Harry Sue is being raised by her neglectful grandmother. Both of her parents are in prison. Determined to reunite with her mother, she is striving to become a criminal. Problem is Harry Sue’s too soft hearted. In spite of her best efforts to be a troublemaker her soft heart keeps getting in the way.
Her best friend knows all about doing time. Homer’s a quadriplegic that lives in a tree house., The way Harry Sue sees it, Homer’s got a life sentence. A wacky therapist is showing him how to live. As Homer starts to have a life, Harry Sue finds glimmers of light in her own life. Maybe prison isn’t the answer.
Peppered with prison lingo Stauffacher introduces readers to a complex character struggling with the good and bad aspects of her inner self. Harry Sue so wants to be bad, but she just doesn’t have it in her to be bad like she wants and believes she needs to be. Written for children in grades 4-7 the complexity of the protagonist is at once simple and complex and can be enjoyed by readers of all ages.
Her best friend knows all about doing time. Homer’s a quadriplegic that lives in a tree house., The way Harry Sue sees it, Homer’s got a life sentence. A wacky therapist is showing him how to live. As Homer starts to have a life, Harry Sue finds glimmers of light in her own life. Maybe prison isn’t the answer.
Peppered with prison lingo Stauffacher introduces readers to a complex character struggling with the good and bad aspects of her inner self. Harry Sue so wants to be bad, but she just doesn’t have it in her to be bad like she wants and believes she needs to be. Written for children in grades 4-7 the complexity of the protagonist is at once simple and complex and can be enjoyed by readers of all ages.
May 13, 2019
This is one of those books that just takes you through every possible emotion: an immediate love for this prickly, precious, compassionate little girl coupled with a desperate desire for her to make better life choices. Then, the glorious heart soaring as she begins to change and the terrible pain crashing as the climax strikes and a lot of things hit the fan. Then, there’s the overarching theme of renewal and redemption and possibility and hope, and these come through so powerfully at the end. The writing style spoke 100% to this individual, loving, sore and sad little girl, who desperately needed to know there was more to life than crime and injustice and horrible happenings suspended only by luck. One of my favorite things about the story, besides Harry’s personality, was her overwhelming resilience, the fact that even when Harry herself tried to snuff love out of her heart, something in that girl always managed to hope.
August 26, 2008
You may have heard about a boy named Sue. Now meet a girl named Harry. Just before her mother went to the joint for making crystal meth in the kitchen, she told her daughter, “You aren’t the kind to invite trouble, so I had to do it for you. You need practice to stand up for yourself properly. No girl named Harry Sue gets pushed around. She’s the kind that goes down fighting.”
Harry figures that the only way she’ll see her mother again is to become a juvenile delinquent and get sent up. But she has a problem, and she knows it.
“Unfortunately, I had a heart condition that needed fixing before I could begin a serious crime spree.
Yes, Fish, my heart was as lumpy and soft as a rotten tomato. I couldn’t stand to see things hurt, especially anything weak and defenseless.”
Harry figures that the only way she’ll see her mother again is to become a juvenile delinquent and get sent up. But she has a problem, and she knows it.
“Unfortunately, I had a heart condition that needed fixing before I could begin a serious crime spree.
Yes, Fish, my heart was as lumpy and soft as a rotten tomato. I couldn’t stand to see things hurt, especially anything weak and defenseless.”
Read
August 21, 2011I enjoyed reading this book because Harry Sue tells her story of how her life has turned out after trying to find her mother. I liked the way Harry Sue told the readers that her life has completely changed after falling from the 7th floor of her apartment at 5 years old. Also, her parents are interesting because her mother cared a lot of about her, her father just wanted to be with Harry Sue's mother, and the grandma- she is the worst grandmother ever. She has a day care for kids and treats them like animals. Harry Sue also has a huge crush on the boy who decided to be her friend, Homer Price, who was paralyzed. Before her quest to living a crime-filled life she must save the kids who stay in her grandmother's day care center.
October 19, 2009
Excellent, if gritty. “Although tough-talking Harry Sue would like to start a life of crime in order to be "sent up" and find her incarcerated mother, she must first protect the children at her [awful:], neglectful grandmother's home day care center” and figure out how to do right by her best friend, Homer, who basically lives in his tree house after being paralyzed in a diving accident. Friendship with Homer’s wacko home health aide, Anna, and with the substitute art teacher, a Sudanese “Lost Boy” she calls Baba, also helps.
August 17, 2010
Although tough-talking Harry Sue would like to start a life of crime in order to be "sent up" and find her incarcerated mother, she must first protect the children at her neglectful grandma's home day care center and befriend a paralyzed boy.
Another marvelous original work by Stauffacher (author of Donuthead. Although the themes are quite serious, the dialogue is so humorous and the heroine so full of heart, that it's really not a "downer." Would be a good book discussion choice. (I transferred this review from an index card I made years ago.)
Another marvelous original work by Stauffacher (author of Donuthead. Although the themes are quite serious, the dialogue is so humorous and the heroine so full of heart, that it's really not a "downer." Would be a good book discussion choice. (I transferred this review from an index card I made years ago.)
August 1, 2011
Harry Sue lives with a mean-spirited, conniving grandmother who dupes parents into leaving their kids with her so she can abuse them. Harry's parents are both convicts - her father because he threw her out a seventh floor window and her mother for selling crystal meth. You'd think Harry Sue would be warped by this but along with her best friend, a quadriplegic who lives in his own tree house, she deals with the realities of her life in a straight from the hip kind of way - except for the part where she thinks getting arrested to be with her mom is her most important goal.
April 10, 2009
Let me see:
-I learned quite a lot about prison jargon. Hear that, fish?
-Quite funny at some places, at the same time heartwarming (and at one place- heartbreaking)
-The friendship between Harry and her best friend Homer was really sweet. A friend who understand when not to ask, when to lend a helping hand and always be there for you, that's one valuable friend.
-Makes me want to reread The Wizard of Oz..
-I learned quite a lot about prison jargon. Hear that, fish?
-Quite funny at some places, at the same time heartwarming (and at one place- heartbreaking)
-The friendship between Harry and her best friend Homer was really sweet. A friend who understand when not to ask, when to lend a helping hand and always be there for you, that's one valuable friend.
-Makes me want to reread The Wizard of Oz..
February 10, 2015
I would give this book 10 stars if I could! Loved every minute, every word. Found it by accident, on display at the library, and lured in by the title and the cover of this edition. It's a good good story, full of life. Female protagonist, lots of rich characters, good guys, and tie-ins with The Wizard of Oz (the book! the book!). Bad guys are caricatures, but that really includes only one wicked witch and a couple of hench-teens. LOVED THIS BOOK.
September 26, 2008
I'm not normally a fan of Children's Literature (go figure), but as I was revising new books, I came across this one and was intrigued. A quick read with well-managed chapters, the story is familiar enough to keep you interested, but fresh enough to keep you guessing. I'll definitely be pushing this book on readers in my library.
April 1, 2010
Thanks to Jennifer B for suggesting this one! I love a tough girl character and now I have a special place in my heart for Harriet Sue. This book is filled with everything you could want: humor, tenderness, colorful characters, and made-up words. Readalikes: When You Reach Me and The Higher Power of Lucky.
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