The Emotional Rollercoaster of So B. It

So B. It by Sarah Weeks is a novel about a 12 year old girl named Heidi who's mom is disabled and is taken care of by her neighbor, Bernadette. They live a somewhat regular life together, but only barely scrape by because of Heidi's uncanny luckiness. She goes up to slot machines and wins every time, buys lottery tickets and wins every time. But even with this "skill" life isn't so easy. Heidi knows nothing about her life, or her mother, or her past, because her mom doesn't have the ability to communicate what happened. She doesn't know who her dad is, when she was born, what her Mom's real name is, or pretty much anything. Most of all, she wants to know what the word "Soof" means, a word that her mom says all the time that is completely random.  Heidi finds a camera with a bunch of pictures of her mom at a home for the disabled and her curiosity peaks. She immediately wants to ask those people at the home what they know about her mom, and have them answer her many questions about her existence. So, she goes on an adventure all by herself from Nevada to New York in order to finally find out all the things she doesn't know about herself. Little does she know that this adventure will change her life forever.

A thing that I think this book excels in is making the book so emotional. There are plenty of scenes where the author really conveys the homesickness and distress of Heidi along her trip. An example of this is when Heidi calls home to Bernadette and breaks down in tears. "I knew I should tell her that I was fine, and that I had made it to Liberty in one piece, but the moment I heard her voice, I fell apart...I stood there with my little suitcase clamped between my legs, bawling into the phone. I came completely unglued-no words, just sobs, and on the other end Bernadette was crying and at the same time trying to soothe me with her sounds."(Weeks, 148) There is another scene towards the end that was moving but I can't include because of spoilers. But it was very well done and made me sad and feel for Heidi.

Something I thought was unique was the titles of the chapters. Heidi's mom can barely speak and can't communicate her feelings across very well. However she can say 23 words. Each word is the title of one of the chapters, and it is always pertaining to the chapter in some way. I think that this was a very creative way to name each chapter.

Another thing that I enjoyed about this book was the lessons that this book taught. Along the train ride to New York she needs to ride with an adult because she isn't old enough to ride on the train by herself yet. So she finds a new "mom" every now and then to be with her on the bus. This leads to her talking with these people and getting to know them pretty well. In every account she has with the adults, she learns something about lying. She learns from the first fake mom, Alice, that people lie because the truth is too hard to admit. Heidi lies on and on about how she has such a nice family, and her grandma bakes her cakes and knows Shirley Temple. She realizes that she is just doing this because her life is so hard, it's hard to talk to someone about it that doesn't know what that's like to not know your family. The second fake mom she meets is Georgia. She is very similar to Heidi in that she doesn't know her mom well because she died of cancer when Georgia was 5, like how Heidi doesn't know her father, or know her Mom very well either. Heidi learns that it's easier to lie the more you do it and you even start to believe it yourself. She looks back and realizes that she wanted to have a nice, big family so bad that she had even started to convince herself she was telling the truth as well.

However, I think the best lesson that was taught was that something are better to not know, and knowing everything isn't necessary. She goes on this entire adventure to learn things, but the only thing that really mattered was that she was there, and she was Heidi. Of course curiosity isn't bad, but Heidi was so enveloped in solving this mystery that she began to lie to her loved ones and not realize that all she really needed was right there in front of her. This mistake ultimately leads to a sad moment for Heidi. She regrets doing all of this and realizes that this was all trivial in the big scheme of things.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, and enjoyed all 250 pages. The book was entertaining with the mystery aspect of Heidi trying to find out about her past, while also being a thought provoking and an emotional piece. While the book is pretty interesting, I wouldn't suggest it if you are looking for a fun, fast-paced action book or something along those lines. However, I would strongly suggest this book to anyone looking for a book that isn't too long and that you can read and be enveloped into the story and fall in love with the characters.